


When I'm Gone

by Eiahmon



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Ignoring KHIII here, Keyblade Wielder Lea (Kingdom Hearts), Lea as Xehanort's apprentice, Other, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Sequel to Heirlooms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 51,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiahmon/pseuds/Eiahmon
Summary: Step 1: get keyblade. Step 2: save the universe. It had all seemed so simple to Lea then. Now he has a new goal: save Isa. Easier said than done when no one knows where Isa is, and he has no one to help him search anyway. Or does he? Join Lea as he chases his best friend across the worlds with assistance from an completely unexpected corner. Rating is for Lea's mouth.





	1. When I'm Gone

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a direct sequel to the Heirloom Trilogy ("Heirloom", "Where We Belong", and "Will You Still Love Me?") and takes place in the same universe as "The Birth of Grace" Reading those four fics is not required, but is HIGHLY recommended.
> 
> It also adhere to "Back Cover" while ignoring many things in Kingdom Heart X. So Laurium and Ventus were not in the Keyblade War, but we still have the events with the Master of Masters, Luxu, and the other Foretellers.
> 
> Many thanks to the wonderful Lita_Snow for being a dear and fixing my screw ups.
> 
> Enjoy

_Dear Isa,_

_Two years._

_It's been two years since I saw you last, that day in Where Nothing Gathers. Part of me isn't sure why I'm even writing this. You know reading and writing were never my thing. Remember all the times you had to practically force me to do my homework when we were in school? Yet here I am, writing a letter that you might never see. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but... things aren't looking good right now._

_They said it was only temporary, that the Council of the Keys only wanted to keep you just long enough to lure Xehanort into a trap. It would be quick, they said._

_Yeah, well, they lied._

_Two damned years, Isa! Two years since they said it would be over with quickly! God, I never should have believed them! Of course, what could I have done? Chosen by the keyblade or no, I was once a Nobody, and that makes me suspect in their eyes. Terra's not having any better luck with them either. C'mon, it's not like he asked to be possessed or anything, but nope, they don't like him and said they won't acknowledge his mastery if he gets it from Master Yen Sid or Master Aqua. Possession can only take place in a heart saturated with darkness, they said. Morons._

_Why do we even have them anyway? With so few keyblade masters left in the worlds, you'd think they wouldn't be so picky about who swings one._

_They don't trust me because I used to be a Nobody._

_They don't trust Terra because he was possessed by Xehanort._

_They don't trust Master Aqua because she spent years in the Realm of Darkness._

_They don't trust Ventus because he was once used to forge the X-blade._

_They don't trust Master Yen Sid because he doesn't care what they think._

_They don't trust Sora because he got his heart shattered and nearly possessed by Xehanort._

_They don't trust Master Riku because he was possessed by Xehanort, even if it was for only a little while._

_They don't trust Master Mickey because he helped teach Master Riku._

_C'mon, it's not like any of those guys listed up there helped save the universe or anything. Oh wait, they_ did _. Silly me, why would I expect the council to be logical or anything? How dare I be so pretentious..._

" _We just need him for bait." they said. "You'll have him home soon." they said._

_Yen Sid said that the council had been a bunch of stuffed shirts even when he was an apprentice. They'd protested Master Limahl taking in a young Xehanort decades ago since the kid had darkness in his heart or some crap, and now they're using his omnicidal tendencies to push their agenda, whatever that is. They certainly haven't told anyone. Hell, Master Yen Sid admitted that he'd heard from his own master that they'd objected to Master Limahl being taken in as a kid by Master Alexia for the same reason. Apparently having any darkness in your heart means you are unworthy of the keyblade, even if the keyblades themselves think otherwise._

_As I said before, morons._

_So enough of that depressing stuff. Let me tell you about the interesting news. How much of this you'll already know is just something I just shrug my shoulders over. I need to write something here, since I can't talk to you in person. We didn't talk much the last few years as Nobodies, but damn, now that you're not around, I'm going insane without having you to talk at._

_Yes, at. Not to. Because I don't think you were listening to me half the time anyway._

_No, I'm not crying!_

_Anyway, on to the interesting stuff!_

_The first thing I should tell you is that everyone in the Organization is back to normal, hearts and all. Something about destroying the Heart and then the Nobody allows the original person to reform or something. At least, that's what Yen Sid said when I asked him. Not only that, but there's the added bonus of still having all our Nobody powers and control over the Darkness. So I can still set things on fire and fling my chakrams around if I feel the need. I have been warned, though, about using the Darkness, now that I have a heart that can be corrupted again._

_But wait, there's more! You know all that time I spent hanging out with Roxas and Xion? It was enough for me to – get this – grow a new heart. Crazy, right? When the heart is lost, the body will try to replace it, and the more you actually try to live your life, the faster it will happen. Makes me wonder if that was why Xemnas kept sending us out on pointless missions all the damned time. Can't live a life when you're constantly doing drudge work, after all._

_And speaking of Xehanort..._

_So yeah, that big grand plan of his to incite another keyblade war? Yeaaaaah, it hasn't happened. No one knows where the hell he's been since then, and frankly, I don't care. Maybe the old fart had a heart attack during one of his speeches or something. That would be awesome, wouldn't it?_

_Someone's been doing something though, let me tell you. It's been weird all the things that have been happening since Xehanort was last seen._

_The first thing was Terra. Yup, possessed by Xehanort just before Xehanort landed in Radiant Garden minus his memories years ago. The memory loss was apparently caused by Xehanort himself or something, but whatever, that's not what's interesting. What's interesting is that Terra just appeared one day in town, unpossessed and in full control of himself. His memories of how he got free are pretty hazy, so he doesn't know how it happened, but Master Yen Sid confirmed that he's completely free of Xehanort's influence. Not only that, but his body appears... new, I guess you could say. All the marks caused by getting into accidents and incidents as a kid are gone, he says. It's like someone cloned him and shoved his heart into it. Even swears it wasn't him._

_That leads us to the next thing: Aqua. Trapped for years in the Realm of Darkness. One day she just appeared at Yen Sid's tower, again without knowing how she got there. She said a voice called out to her through the darkness, and a hand pulled her to safety. That's all she knows. She returned to Castle Oblivion (Remember that place?), and would you believe it, it used to be completely different. Master Aqua went back there, did something fancy with that Master's Defender that she's got, and turned it back to its original form. It is a nice place; I'll have to take you there for a visit once you're home. Oh, and the thing Xemnas had been obsessed with there? Yeah, it was a kid of all things. Ventus, an apprentice under Master Eraqus along with Aqua and Terra. He'd been hidden away in there, sleeping, ever since he got his heart shattered years ago. So yup, Ven's awake, his heart's in one piece, the Land of Departure is back in action, and Master Aqua is in control of it._

_Let me tell you, the Council of the Keys is pissed about it – with a capital P. Something about the Land of Departure being an important waypoint in the balance between light and dark, and how they don't believe anyone but themselves should be in control of it. There are bets going around about how long it'll be before they try and take the castle by force. Good luck, says Yen Sid. The castle is ancient and is steeped in protective wards, which are now under Aqua's control. Trying to take the castle from her might end up in some serious messes._

_Lessee, what else?_

_Oh yeah, I've seen a few other members of the Organization floating around, former members I should say. Marluxia's actually not quite the pompous prick he was before now that he's got his heart back. He's back in his own world, ruling the place, and we actually shared a few drinks at a tavern near his castle (Does everyone own a castle except for me?). I got the impression that him losing his heart was a good thing for him, and since he still has his Nobody powers like the rest of us, he used it to cow his asshole parents into compliance and stole the throne. Maybe that's where he got that from? He can't hold his booze worth a damn though, I'm pleased to say._

_And Vexen, that smug asshole. I admit I gave him a nasty death, worse than he deserved to be honest._

_Okay, far, FAR worse than he deserved._

…

…

_Alright, fine! He didn't deserve to die at all! There, I admitted it. But what else was I supposed to do? I was only following orders after all. Question: did that order come from you, or from Xehanort?_

_Anyway, Vexen is back to being Even, and let me tell you, it nearly didn't end well for him. Something went wrong when his complete self reformed, and it left him cold, tired, and too weak to sit up in bed, much less get up and move around. It wasn't looking good for him, and all the people that could fix it – all the people with keyblades – were out looking for Xehanort. So it was looking like Even was going to die not long after getting his heart back, and then one morning, Ienzo (Zexion) finds Even up and wandering the castle, still looking a little tired, but fine. Mickey and Yen Sid are adamant that such a recovery would have needed the skills and magic of a keyblade wielder, but no one with one was responsible._

_Probably the most interesting change is with Ansem. Yeah, I heard he got himself out of the Realm of Darkness that Xehanort had chucked him in via the Power of Hate (Did you read that with a loud, booming mental voice?) only to end up right back in it when his attempt to encode Kingdom Hearts (Seriously?) literally blew up in his face. (Do you remember that, by chance?) Well, like Aqua, he's out, and he's back in charge of Radiant Garden. The world's almost fully recovered now, another year or two and you won't be able to tell it was ever destroyed. I heard he got over his hatred of Xehanort and the others before his encoder blew up, but everyone still expected him to be pissed as a bear at Xehanort._

_But he's not._

_It's really weird. He seems strangely calm over the whole mess, really. He accepted Even and the others back without question, and was even worried about Even's health when he heard about the difficulties he had after reforming. Hell, the portrait of Xehanort, I've been told, is still hanging in his study. You know, the room he rules the world from? So he sees Xehanort's face everyday? I don't get it either. Everyone's confused about it. I mean, why would he want a portrait of the man who betrayed him and wrecked his world in his study, where he can see it everyday? I'd have burned the thing the instant I got a chance myself._

_He also refuses to appoint a new heir. Yeah, yeah, we all know Xehanort was his adopted son and was the heir apparent, with Even the heir presumptive before that, but you'd think he would have disowned him or something. Or at least nullified the adoption. But nope, I've heard from Ienzo that Xehanort's adoption is still valid, and he's still the heir. Which is just fucked up. I dunno, maybe the old man is grieving for his kid – it's not like his kid stabbed him in the back, killed several of their people, tossed him into the Realm of Darkness, and trashed the world, oh no – but hey, he might need time to get over him! You never know!_

_Or maybe he's just senile. That's what I'm beginning to think._

_But I have to keep my thoughts on that to myself for now. Despite everything the people of Radiant Garden are happy to have Ansem back, and he is doing a lot of good. He's got the world back in shape must faster than the Restoration Committee ever could have –_ especially _since he won't let Yuffie_ near _the restoration coffers, or the tax income that's filling those coffers. (Yup, if your house is fixed, your business is up and running, and you have a job? You gotta pay taxes again. Good news is, almost all of it's going to restoring the world, with the rest being put in a "just in case" fund.)_

_And honestly, I kinda need his help._

_No one knows where the Council of the Keys took you. They have their own castle (Seriously, I'm beginning to think I'm the only one that doesn't have one!) but you're not there. I went banging on their door one day, demanding entrance, and though they pretty much threw me off the world, I was able to scan the place for hearts, (Having a keyblade has some nice perks.) and I didn't see yours. I've searched so many places, and I haven't been able to find you anywhere, and I'm running out of options. Not even Yen Sid and Mickey know where you might be. Sora and Riku want to help, but the two of them are off preparing for whenever Xehanort's schemes finally make their appearance, whenever that finally happens. The waiting really sucks, let me make that clear. Hopefully, the longer we wait, the greater the chances the old geezer will kick it first. He doesn't have Terra's body anymore, right? So maybe he's back in his old body – somehow._

_I really try not to think about that. It makes my brain hurt._

_Ansem is my last hope. Since you're from his world, maybe the Council bothered to tell him something. I know the chances are practically zero, but I still need to try. I don't know what else to do. If the council wants you for bait, we'll be waiting until Xehanort finally decides to make an appearance, and at the rate he's going, I might die of old age myself before that happens. (Maybe that's his plan?)_

_So yeah, I'm going to see Ansem tomorrow, and maybe he can tell me something, point me in the right direction, or know someone that can help. Wish me luck! I can't wait any longer._

_I'm going to find you, Isa! I don't care what it takes! I WILL bring you home!_

_So hopefully, I'll see you soon!_

_Love (but not_ that _way!),  
Lea_

**OOOOOO**

Lea sat slumped down in the chair outside of Ansem's study, tapping one of his booted feet against the polished stone floor. Getting into the castle was a lot easier these days, with the help of a weapon that no lock could stop, but since he'd come seeking Ansem's help, he'd figured that simply walking in without an invitation would be a bad idea. So he'd done the adult thing (Ugh...) and asked Aeleus to request an audience for him with Radiant Garden's lord.

He smiled faintly; all those times he and Isa had snuck into the castle, and all they'd needed to do was simply ask. Isa would never believe it.

Actually, yeah he would. It had always been Lea's idea to try and sneak in after all.

Then again, the reason he'd been granted the audience was probably because of that aforementioned weapon that couldn't be stopped by any lock. Best to see him and get it done with, so he didn't just waltz in later.

Lea groaned as he tilted his head back to lean against the wall behind the chair and mentally ran through the speech he had prepared. Things had gotten so complicated since he'd summoned a keyblade. Get a keyblade, help save the universe; it had all seemed so easy then. Master Yen Sid had done the Inheritance Ceremony with him, and then the others had warped time to allow him to summon it quicker.

Step one: get keyblade. Check.

Step two: save the universe... Yeah, that didn't appear to be happening any time soon. Right now, he didn't really care about that anyway. Xehanort hadn't been seen in two years, at least one of his vessels had freed himself somehow, and a third was in the keeping of the Council of the Keys. His schemes couldn't go forward without them, right? Besides, Lea had Isa to worry about now; Xehanort could wait.

He broke from his thoughts and sat up when the door to the study opened, spilling warm yellow light into the cold hallway.

"Come in, Lea." came Ansem's voice from just on the other side, and Lea scrambled to his feet and had to force himself to not run in. He needed to be an adult (Ugh...) here and act politely. Use those manners that his parents had spent so long drilling into his head.

He walked into the study just in time for Ansem to seat himself behind his desk. The study door shut behind him as he was gestured to take a seat in front of the desk. He sat down, but before he could begin his carefully prepared speech, Ansem began speaking.

"I know why you came here, Lea." the man said, and Lea felt his heart sink at his tone. "No, I do not know where Isa is. The Council has not shared that information with me. I know why they have him: to use him as bait for Heir Xehanort, as he can track his vessels, but I do not know where they have taken him."

Lea sighed as he slumped down in the chair. "I... see." He dragged himself to his feet. "I'm sorry for bothering you, Lord Ansem. I'll see myself out."

"However," Ansem's words froze him in mid turn towards the door, "I do know someone who can help."

Lea slowly looked over his shoulder at him. "You do? Who?"

Ansem stood up to look him in the eye. "If you are serious about finding Isa, come back here later tonight, after 11pm. By then the castle will have only a skeleton staff up and about, and I know you'll be able to sneak down here without being seen. You must come alone, Lea, this is very important." Ansem looked straight into his eyes, orange meeting green. "If you are not alone, the person will leave without offering any assistance. Do not tell anyone that you are coming here, and pack for an extended journey."

Lea's mind caught up with him then, and he turned to fully face Ansem. "What? What are you talking about? Who can help? I don't -"

Ansem cut him off. "Do you want Isa back?"

"I do."

"What are you willing to do to see him safely home?"

"Anything."

"Even if it means going against your other friends? The other wielders of the keyblade? The Council of the Keys itself?"

"What is that supposed to mean? I want my best friend back!"

"Then pack for an extended journey, tell no one that you're leaving, and be back here after eleven."

Ansem sat back down and turned his attention to the piles of paperwork that covered the surface of the desk.

Lea stood there for a moment, his mouth working but making no sound. What the hell was that all about?

"You are dismissed, Lea." Ansem said evenly. "You might want to try getting a few hours sleep before you come back here, so you ought to go back home."

Lea blinked and shook his head. Ansem didn't say anything, and Lea slowly turned around and walked out of the study. What had just happened? He made his way out of the castle and through the town without thinking about it, and it wasn't until he'd walked through the door of his childhood home that his thought process restarted.

He sank down into the nearest chair in the silent room, still half expecting, despite all the years that had passed, for his father to appear and tell him to go sit in his own chair, but of course that hadn't happened. His parents hadn't survived once the world had come apart. Isa's had, and they'd begun to give up hope of ever seeing their only child again.

He had to do something... Ansem had said that there was someone that could help...

He stood up from the chair and wandered back to his bedroom, the same one he'd occupied before the world's fall. Twelve years since the fall, two years since he'd learned that his mother and father hadn't made it, and he still couldn't bear to take over the master bedroom that had once been theirs. He absently began pulling clothes out of drawers and piling them in the middle of his bed. Isa's parents had refused to return to their old home, claiming that it was haunted by the memories of their missing son. Lea had gone over there once, and even with the damage to the house: roof caved in, collapsing floors, peeling paint, broken windows, debris piled up everywhere, he'd been able to easily see the house as it had once been. Neat as a pin and ringing with the laughter of two boys planning their next adventure.

He hadn't stayed long, and he hadn't been back since. He'd also been secretly relieved when the dilapidated building had been demolished not long afterward.

He hauled a backpack out of the closet and tossed it on the bed next to his clothes. It wasn't right. No one knew how the Council had even gotten their hands on Isa. They'd just announced that they had him one day and had allowed Mickey to see for himself but had refused to let anyone try and help him. Mickey's description of Isa sitting slumped against the wall in an empty room, head lolled to the side, eyes staring blankly ahead, drool dripping from his chin had sent Lea to their castle, demanding entrance. They'd laughed at him and tossed him not only out of the castle, but off of the world itself. It had been two years, and no one had seen Isa since.

For that matter, except for Terra, none of Xehanort's vessels – Lea winced at thinking of Isa as one of them – had been seen since the confrontation in Where Nothing Gathers. Sora and the others had scoured the worlds for them, but they seemed to have vanished. What was Xehanort planning? Why was he waiting?

"Well, it doesn't matter." Lea said to himself in the otherwise silent room. "I don't care about Xehanort anymore. I'm going to find Isa, and I'm going to bring him home." With that he tossed one last thing, a blue hardcover writing journal, into the backpack and zipped it shut. He then left it sitting on his bed, while he went off to the kitchen to make himself something for lunch.

**OOOOOO**

A few hours after sunset, Lea slipped quietly through town towards the castle. His black coat was on with the hood up, and he used it to the fullest to better blend in with the shadows of trees and houses cast by the bright moonlight. He'd thought about using the Corridors of Darkness to get in quicker, but he'd discarded that after a moment of thought. He'd already been warned by Master Mickey about the dangers of continued use of the Darkness, and he had no desire to lose his heart again or worse, end up like Xehanort, corrupted beyond any hope of redemption. To complicate things, years of being Nobodies had given the former Organization members a heightened sensitivity to Darkness, and he didn't want to risk Even or one of the others sensing it and coming to investigate. Ansem had said to come alone, and that's what he was going to do.

He summoned Proud Flame as he ascended the steps to the castle's main entrance, and a quick tap to the doors released the massive locks that kept them shut. From there, it was easy enough to open one of the doors just enough to slip inside, close it behind him, and relock it. It was a simple matter to make his way through the dimly lit castle to the study, and Ansem's voice bade him enter before he could even raise his hand to knock.

Unlike the rest of the castle, all the lights were on in Ansem's study, and he was sitting at his desk, working on some kind of paperwork. Once Lea had stepped in and closed the door behind him, he looked up at him.

"Are you ready?" he asked in a serious tone.

Lea nodded as he lowered his hood. "Yes, who is it that's going to help?"

Ansem stood up and looked him in the eye again. "Before he comes out, you must swear to me to keep your head when you see him. Do not leave this room, and do not raise your voice."

"Why?"

"Swear to me, Lea, or you will turn around and walk right back out that door."

Lea paused and growled slightly in frustration as he raked his hand back through his hair. "Fine, I swear to not flip out. Happy?"

Ansem gave him a long, searching look before he nodded once. "Lock the door."

Lea growled again as he spun around, summoned Proud Flame, and fired off a beam of light at the door's keyhole. The lock clicking into place echoed loudly in the room, and Lea spun back around to face Ansem as he dismissed his keyblade. "Are you done now? I'd like to get on with finding my best friend."

"Mind your tone." came a voice from the left, a voice that made Lea's heart freeze for a moment. "You do not speak to Lord Ansem that way."

Lea stood there, frozen in place, staring at Ansem, for a moment, before he turned to face the voice. Proud Flame appeared without him thinking about it.

"Xehanort!"

Lord Ansem's adopted son, the heir still to Radiant Garden's throne, the man responsible for so much destruction and countless deaths, the one who had taken Isa from him, stood there in front of the door to the lab, calmly looking back at Lea like he had not a care in the world. Like he didn't have a near universe wide manhunt looking for him. Lea absently took in the paler skin, the bright gold eyes, the shoulders that weren't quite as broad as they had been as Xemnas, the longer hair that was white as it had been before the Fall instead of Xemnas' silvery gray, and the aura of power that rolled around him like a tightly constrained thunderstorm about to break free. A black Organization coat swept down to his ankles as he casually crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

Lea shook his head; Xehanort's looks weren't the important thing here. "What the hell are you doing here, Xehanort!"

"Do not address Heir Xehanort so informally." Ansem said in a firm tone, and Lea turned to look at him.

"What! 'Heir' Xehanort? Are you serious? Are you out of your mind! After everything he did, he's still Heir Xehanort!" He looked back at Xehanort, who was still regarding him with a bored expression. "He throws you into the Realm of Darkness, destroys the world, and you still treat him as your son! He should be hanging from a gallows somewhere, not standing here like nothing's wrong! Why in the hell -"

"Enough!" Xehanort straightened up, and Lea flinched despite himself as the man's power pressed down upon him. "I just told you that you do not speak to Lord Ansem in such a way."

"It is fine, Xehanort." Ansem said from his desk. "I expected this reaction."

Xehanort stared at Lea for a moment, and then he _Hmph'd_ and leaned back against the door frame again. "I suppose so, but I believe that my coming here may have been a waste of my time."

"You're the only one that can help, Xehanort." Ansem replied, and Lea whipped around to stare at him. "Isa and Braig are the only ones left to find."

Lea couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Xehanort? _Xehanort_ is the one you said would help me?" Ansem nodded, and Lea just stared at him while his mouth moved but no words came out.

"I think you broke him, Papa." Xehanort said, the amusement in his tone coming through clearly.

"You find this funny!" Lea snapped as he turned to look at him. "I should walk right out that door, find any member of the guard, hell, anyone would work, and tell them you're here! I'm sure the people would love to hear that you had the gall to come back here!"

Xehanort simply looked at him, one elegant white eyebrow raised. "Fine then. I see that I am not needed here." He turned to look at Ansem. "I shall endeavor to return Isa safely home as soon as possible, though I have no idea when that will be."

"What you mean 'return him safely home'?" Lea demanded, but he was ignored.

"And Braig?" Ansem asked.

"He was the only one willing in this entire scheme. I cannot say."

"Aside from you." Lea growled, but again, he was ignored.

"I still think you should take Lea with you." Ansem said. "He could benefit from your experience, and he won't be climbing the walls here about Isa if he's actively helping to find him."

"That is true." Xehanort frowned in thought, and Lea scowled about being spoken of as though he wasn't in the room. "He also can't go running to anyone who will listen about my appearance here if I have him with me."

Ansem and Xehanort looked at him then, and Lea scowled again.

"You have two options, Lea." Xehanort said. "Stay here and do nothing, or come with me, help me track down Isa, and learn how to handle that keyblade properly while you're at it."

"I can teach myself!" Lea snarled. "If Sora could learn by himself, then so can I."

"Don't make me laugh. The only thing Sora has taught himself is how to destroy his knees from not carrying the keyblade properly. Why Master Yen Sid allows him to go on without teaching him anything is beyond me."

"Says the one who has lost to Sora twice."

Xehanort didn't move or change expression. "A Heartless and a Nobody. Powerful, but not the full extent of what I am capable of, not at all. Now, choose."

"You honestly expect me to just follow you after everything you've done?"

"What other option do you have? I am your only hope for getting Isa back."

"The council said they would return him once they had found you. I'd rather take my chances -"

Xehanort let out a snort. "Do you honestly think that they're telling the truth? They need him to lead me into whatever trap they have planned. Once I'm gone, they'll have no more use for him."

"And they'll let him come home, so what's the problem?"

"They won't let him come home. He has a fragment of my heart within his own. Once they have no need of him, they'll simply destroy him to destroy the fragment."

Once again Lea found his mouth working with no sound coming out. "What?" he finally managed to croak after a minute or so had passed. "But they said -"

"I am the only one who can free Isa's heart without severely damaging or outright destroying it. Killing him is the far easier option for ensuring that no part of me survives. Once I am gone, they will not hesitate. One way or another, Isa will never come home if you rely on them."

The room fell silent then, and Lea stared at Xehanort as the latter's words ran though his head over and over.

"Make your choice, Lea." Ansem said quietly once a few minutes had passed. "Heir Xehanort cannot stay here much longer."

"Can't I take a day to think on it?" Lea asked as he finally forced his voice to work.

Xehanort glanced up at the clock above the door to the rest of the castle. "You have 30 seconds."

Lea looked over at Ansem." Why?" he asked. "Why do you want me to do this?"

"Because I trust him." Ansem said with a faint smile. "So should you, if you want Isa back."

"But, everything he's done... I..."

"Twenty seconds."

"I know, I know it's hard to believe that he's not that way anymore, but I need you to trust me, Lea. Heir Xehanort only wants to set right what he did wrong."

"How do you know though? How do we know that this isn't some trick of his?"

"Ten seconds."

"Because he proved it to me. That is my son standing there, not the monster he became. I trust him, and I need you to do the same if you want to bring Isa home safely."

"I dunno..." Lea flicked his eyes over at Xehanort, who was still watching the clock with a bored expression. "Are you sure. I mean, really sure?"

"Yes, I am certain."

"Time's up."

Lea paused, took a deep breath, and then he turned to face Xehanort.

"Have you made your choice?" the Keyblade Master asked, and Lea stared at him. His heart hammered away in his chest, and he clenched his fists at his sides as his thoughts seemed to freeze. He couldn't just go along with him.. what if it was all a trap... but if he was telling the truth about Isa...

"Well?"

The man who had destroyed Radiant Garden... who had stolen so many lives... had taken Isa from him... had tried to possess Sora...

"I am waiting."

...was swearing to bring Isa back, to break the possession.

Xehanort let out an aggravated sigh, pushed himself off of the door frame, and began to walk away, back through the door that led into the lab.

"Wait!" The word was out of Lea's mouth before he could think about it, and Xehanort paused and looked over his shoulder. "You really are going to bring him home?"

"Yes."

"Why? You have a death sentence on your head. Why are you risking so much?"

"Because," Xehanort rolled his eyes, "it's the right thing to do. Now are you coming or not? I don't have all night."

Lea ignored the question. "And how can we trust you to judge what is right after everything you've done?"

"Lea..." Ansem said warningly, but Xehanort waved him off and turned to face Lea once more.

"You're just going to have to trust me then, aren't you?"

"I..."

"Do you want Isa back or not, Lea? Come with me, help me find him, and by the time I am through, you will be more than capable of defending him from anyone else."

"Why would I need to do worry about that?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes again. "Use that intelligence that I know you have, Lea! Think for a moment! He may be possessed by a fragment of my heart right now, but the fact remains that he _willingly_ became Xemnas' second-in-command all those years ago. And there will always be people that will distrust him and wish him harm because of said possession. Never mind that it happened against his will, he was once part of me, so there will be those that seek to end him because of it." Xehanort straightened up and stared him down. "Now, I will not waste any more time. Are you coming with me or not?"

Lea didn't answer. His vocal chords felt frozen as his mind and heart warred with each other. Xehanort huffed again and turned to Ansem.

"I will be in touch, Papa." he said, and then he spun on his heel and began to walk through the door that led into the lab.

"Wait," Lea croaked, but Xehanort did not pause in his stride. Lea nearly ran to the door and put his hands on the frame. "Wait!"

Xehanort paused, and Lea ran up to stand beside him. "Yes, I'll come with you!"

"Took you long enough. I hope you're not always this slow at decision making." Xehanort said as he continued walking down the corridor. The door to the study shut behind them as Lea hurried to keep up.

"What the hell did you expect? You just show up wanting me to follow you? The last time I followed you, I lost my heart if you remember."

"As I said before, what other option do you have?"

They stepped into the silent computer room that overlooked the main lab. "Yeah, whatever you say, Norty." Lea muttered to himself.

He felt his feet abruptly leave the floor, and before he could put in any thought as to why that was happening, he felt his back slam into the wall with enough force that it punched most of the air out of his lungs. He was up against the wall, several feet above the floor. Xehanort stood in the middle of the room, with one arm raised and one hand pointing at Lea.

"Let me make something very clear here." Xehanort said in a low tone that made the hair on Lea's arms stand up. "You do not like me, and you do not trust me. Fine, you have your reasons, and frankly, I do not care. However, I am still a Keyblade Master, while you are just barely an apprentice, and I will not be disrespected. From here on, I am Master Xehanort to you. You do not address me by name without my title, and I will not tolerate any cutesy nickname from you. That includes Norty, Xeh-xeh, or any other variation of my name that you can come up with. Am I clear?"

Lea didn't answer, still trying to get his breath back.

"I am waiting for an answer, Lea!"

"Yes," he wheezed.

"Yes, what?"

Lea coughed and was finally able to suck in some air. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

"Good." Xehanort dropped his arm, and Lea felt whatever force that was holding him against the wall release. He dropped bonelessly to the floor, coughing. Xehanort stood there and watched him until he'd caught his breath.

"Now, get up. We have to be gone before anyone notices that I'm here."

Lea staggered to his feet, winching as his back muscles protested the movement.

"Heal." came Xehanort's voice, and Lea felt the green magic of a Cure spell wash over him then. The ache in his back abruptly vanished. "Now summon your glider; we have places to be."

Lea shook his head as he brought his breathing under control and called Proud Flame to him, suddenly glad that Master Yen Sid had at least explained that much to him. He didn't want to think of how Xehanort would react if he didn't know how to summon the glider form.

In a flare of light, the keyblade changed shape, and Xehanort spent a moment looking it over, before he looked up at Lea.

"This reminds me of a motorcycle." he commented as a sly smile touched his lips. "Or perhaps a bicycle might be more appropriate. With training wheels."

"Oh, come on." Lea grumbled. He didn't know what a motorcycle was, but he knew he'd just been insulted.

With nary a gesture, Xehanort summoned his own keyblade, and Lea shivered at the sight of the weapon that had, years ago, torn his heart from his chest. He blinked in surprise when it turned into a pair of wings that attached themselves to Xehanort's back; it made him think of these things called angels he'd once heard about while visiting Neverland for the Organization years ago.

Xehanort opened the Lanes Between. "Follow right behind me, do not wander off, and -" A smirk twisted his mouth as he looked at Lea's glider. "- try not to fall off."

Lea gave him an indignant look, but Xehanort ignored it as he flew easily through the gateway into the Lanes. Lea mounted his own glider, took a deep breath, and then he followed, wondering as he went if he was going to end up regretting it later.


	2. This Is Gonna Hurt

_Dear Isa,_

_Xehanort!_

_Fucking XEHANORT!_

_Can you believe this? Ansem tells me someone can help, and he's talking about the same person who wrecked everything to begin with! Seriously, he has to be going senile or something! Who in their right mind would trust Xehanort after everything he's done! He's the reason I'm having to search for you in the first place! Ugh! I can't believe this!_

_He's changed, Ansem says. Yeah, like I believe that! He's probably just waiting for us to all drop our guard before he picks up right where he left off. Who knows, he might even be taking me on this little trip to get a second chance at possessing me or something. I don't even want to take my eyes off of him for a second if I can help it, but damn it, that's going to be hard. I have to sleep sometime, you know. He has to sleep too, but I don't know if he'll wake up before me and tear my heart out again._

_Aaaargh! I HATE this! First I find out that Xehanort's taken you for his own, and then the fuckers on the Council take you away before I even get a chance to see you again! This isn't fair! Who gave them the right to do that? Master Yen Sid said the council was formed after the Keyblade War to watch over the remaining keyblade wielders to try and prevent another war. Yeah, look how well that has worked out. Xehanort is so close to succeeding, and all they've done about it is steal my best friend away. They sat on their collective asses while the worlds were falling and made no attempt to aid Sora and Master Riku. They did nothing, and now they want me to just sit in the corner like a good little boy and wait for you to come home._

_As much as I don't want to believe Xehanort though, the things he's said make a scary sort of sense. If he's the only one that can easily free your heart, and if the council just needs you for bait, then I could see them doing what he'd said they'd do. I don't want to write it here; it's terrifying enough just thinking about it. Seeing it in writing would be even worse. I keep telling myself that he's full of it, that they wouldn't do that, but it falls too neatly into place when I think about it._

_It just all seems so hopeless now. No one knows where you are, and the only person who's stepped forward to help find you is the very person who put you in that state to start with. He's sitting across from me, writing something himself. I'm kinda curious about it, but I'm not about to ask. He threw a massive fit when I called him Norty earlier. I'd hate to see how he'd react if I nosed into his business. Maybe he's writing a love letter to Ansem or something._

_We didn't fly too far away from Radiant Garden, since it was so late. We flew to another world behind it, where it was earlier in the night to set up camp. He told me that we would be busy tomorrow, and that we had to be well rested. I wanted to just get on with it, but he told me very firmly that we were stopping for the night, end of story. I smarted off to him, something about him just wanting me asleep so he could have his wicked way with me, and I thought for damn sure he was going to backhand me or something. Instead he just blew me away from the spot where we'd stopped, and I hit the ground hard enough to leave me dazed for a minute. He chewed me out for disrespecting him again and told me that if I kept it up, I could go back to Radiant Garden and wait for him to find you himself. Then he made me apologize! Seriously, he hasn't even apologized for all the crap he's done, and he makes me say I'm sorry for mouthing off! I don't remember him being this much of a prick before. He seemed like a nice guy back then, right after Ansem adopted him. I wish that version of Xehanort was here, instead of this high and mighty "I am a Keyblade Master and you will address me as such." type that I got to deal with right now. Hell, back then he didn't even care if we didn't address him as "Heir Xehanort" all that much. It was Ansem and the guard that got their hackles up about it._

_Times like this make me really miss you, you know. Remember how it used to be? Even in the early days of the Organization, if one of us had a problem, we'd just talk it over with each other and suddenly things wouldn't seem so bad. And there was always ice cream. Remember how ice cream made everything better? You used to get so annoyed with me because I was obsessed with sea salt, and I kept buying it for you even though you preferred plain vanilla. Thinking back on it, I realize now that you didn't like sea salt and were only eating it to be nice. Well, when I get you home, we're going out for ice cream, and I'll get you the biggest bar of vanilla they have. That sound good? It's a date then._

_Well, Nort-nort is giving me a look over the fire, so I probably ought to put this away for the night. I hope we're not out here long enough to fill up this entire book. I just wanted something sturdy that would hold up over time, good thing too, since it has to survive what looks to be a lot of world hopping. Hopefully not, but since I was told to pack for a long trip, that's what it looks like it's gonna be._

_Hope to see you soon!  
Lea_

**OOOOOO**

Lea put the notebook away in his pack as Xehanort snuffed the fire with a thought. He'd already put his own writing away and popped up a tent for the night, and Lea wanted to smack himself for not thinking to bring a sleeping bag or something for himself.

"Where are we going tomorrow?" he asked as he tried to find a soft spot of ground near the fire. He could barely see what he was doing, and he had a feeling that Xehanort was watching him in amusement.

"We have to go see someone in this world." Xehanort replied, sounding like he was already inside his tent.

"Who would that be?"

"This world's ruler."

"Why in the world would you see that person, whoever it is? Won't they just try to have you arrested or something?"

"Lumaria has been of great help these past several months, so I am not concerned with that."

"Lumaria? Lumaria Fiore? We're on his world?"

He heard Xehanort shift. "Yes? You did not notice this? I know you've been to Meadowseele before, so how could you not notice which world we had landed on?"

"It's not like I ever learned all the worlds and their locations. Having dark portals made that unnecessary."

"Something else that I have to teach you then. I'm guessing that you also never learned wilderness survival?"

"Nooo... Why would I ever need to know that?"

"Because it can save your life. Because you never know when you'll have to forage for a meal. Because food from a store or restaurant isn't always available. Take your pick." Xehanort shifted again. "Tomorrow, you and I are going to have a long talk about what you do and don't know. It seems that I have a lot to teach you."

Lea just barely managed to stop himself from smarting off again. He didn't feel like being tossed out of bed. He laid down and tried to get comfortable, and he stared up at the sky overhead for a moment before there was the sound of Xehanort moving, and something heavy sailed over the remains of the fire and landed on him.

"What the hell?" He grabbed a hold of whatever it was and felt the course feel of wool under his fingers. It was a blanket, and he heard Xehanort go still again as he resisted the urge to throw it back. He didn't want anything that belonged to that crazy... But, he found himself covering up with it anyway, so he sighed and went with it. He pulled the blanket over himself as he heard the flap on Xehanort's tent close, and after a few minutes, he heard the other's breathing slow down as he fell asleep.

"At least he doesn't snore." Lea grumbled to himself as he tried to get comfortable. He'd never slept on the ground before, and he was quickly coming to learn that he didn't like it. It seemed like every rock in the area had somehow migrated under his coat and was poking him in the sides and back. The hard as a brick beds at the Castle That Never Was were more comfortable than this. Why couldn't they have gone straight to Lumaria's castle instead of camping out here?

"Because it would have been rude to bother him so late." Xehanort's voice made him jump. "Now go to sleep, Lea."

"How in the hell did you -?"

"You were muttering to yourself. Now go to sleep, or I will use magic to make you."

Lea scoffed. "I'd like to see you -"

" _Sleep,_ Lea."

"- try..." Xehanort's magic came over him like a heavier version of the blanket he was covered with, one that was too heavy to simply kick away. Lea felt his eyes close and his body relax, and before he could even attempt to complain about it, he was dead to the world for the rest of the night.

**OOOOOO**

It was the smell of cooking food that dragged Lea out of a deep sleep. He slowly sat up, and he groaned as his head felt heavy and his thoughts muzzy. He rubbed at his gunked up eyes and managed a half-hearted glare at Xehanort, who was using coals from the previous night's fire to grill some kind of leaf wrapped bundle. Nearby, there was another small, leaf wrapped package that, to judge by the darkening of the leaves, had already been cooked.

"You asshole." Lea growled as his head throbbed. "What the hell was that for?"

Xehanort didn't even look up from his cooking. He merely raised his free hand and flicked his fingers, and Lea found himself launched away from camp again. He landed in a tangle of limbs and leather coat some feet away, and he laid there for a moment, dazed, before he stumbled to his feet.

"Goddamn it, Xehano -!" was all he was able to say before Xehanort flicked his fingers again and knocked him back a few more feet.

"Will you fucking qui -!" Flick, fling.

He dragged himself back to his feet and opened his mouth, but Xehanort cut him off before he could say a word.

"If you would like to return to camp and have breakfast, I would suggest that you watch your mouth around me." Lea growled, clenched his fists and said nothing. "Now, come back here."

He growled again and didn't move for a long moment. He didn't want to go back to camp. He didn't want to have to deal with Xehanort. He most certainly didn't want to be made to apologize, which he knew Xehanort would demand of him.

"Lea." Xehanort was using that low tone that he'd used in the computer room again, and Lea kicked angrily at the ground before stomping back over.

Xehanort looked up at him. "Sit down."

It wasn't a request, or a suggestion, and Lea huffed before he sat down.

"As I said before," Xehanort said as he took the second leaf wrapped package off of the coals and set it aside before he looked back at Lea with a serious expression, "You do not like me, and you do not trust me. You have good reasons for that, and I can't fault you for them. However, I _am_ trying to help you. The more you fight me, the harder things will be for both of us. You want Isa to come home, and I am your only hope for getting to him safely. The Council will shred you if you attempt to fight them. You have no training, and you rely heavily upon fire magic, and don't think for an instant that they don't know that. If you ever want to see Isa again, you will have to do as I say, and that includes not being a disrespectful brat."

Lea went to jump to his feet as smoke began to rise up from around him.

"Sit down!" Xehanort barked, and Lea felt his fire snuff out before it really had a chance to ignite.

"What did you do?" he demanded. No one had ever managed to do that before, and the realization made him shiver.

"Sit down." Xehanort said again, this time quieter, but no less firm.

"How did you _do_ that?"

"I will tell you after you sit down."

Lea snarled and sat. "Happy now?"

"Now apologize to me for your mouth."

"Damn it, Xeha -!"

Flick, fling.

Lea groaned as he stumbled to his feet once more, but before he could get his bearings back in order, he felt himself dragged back to camp and pushed down to sit on the grass.

Xehanort leveled a look that was somewhere between disappointed and angry at him. "I am running out of patience with you, Lea. That is the fourth time in only a few minutes that I've disciplined you for being disrespectful to me, something that I warned you just last night that I would not tolerate. I would have expected you to put cause and effect together by now, either that or you're perhaps not as smart as I had once thought. I am so very close to throwing you through a portal back to Radiant Garden.

"You are putting this entire trip at risk with your attitude. Mouth off to me, yell my name in the wrong place, and we will have every form of law enforcement in the worlds after us, including the Council of the Keys. Our only way to find Isa is to keep our heads down and avoid being noticed, something that will not happen if you do not keep your mouth shut.

"Now, for the last time, apologize to me for your mouth."

Lea snarled wordlessly, but the sudden growling on his stomach reminded him that Xehanort had food. "Fine. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for mouthing off to you."

"And?"

Lea snarled again. "Sorry for being a disrespectful brat."

"Come, Lea, you can do better than that. Apologize, and do it properly this time."

"Goddamn it, Xeh-" Xehanort's fingers twitched, and Lea hastily cut the sentence off.

"I am waiting, Lea."

Oh how he _hated_ the man in front of him now. Lea glared at him, silently willing him to burst into flames or something, but of course nothing happened. The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched, as if he knew what Lea was thinking.

"It is not hard, Lea. Say 'Master Xehanort, I apologize to you for mouthing off and for being a disrespectful brat. It won't happen again.'"

Lea glared at him even harder. "I hate you right now."

"You seem to be under the impression that I care. Now you have five seconds before I toss you back through a portal to Radiant Garden."

"Master Xehanort," Lea began through clenched teeth, "I apologize for mouthing off and for being a disrespectful brat. It won't happen again."

"See how easy that was?" Xehanort took one of the leaf wrapped packages and set it on the ground in front of Lea. "Now, eat. After we eat, we have things to discuss before we go meet with Lord Fiore."

"Not going to force me to go without?" Lea said with a faint sneer. "How generous of you."

Xehanort went still for a moment, and then he looked at Lea with an expression so serious that it took him a bit by surprise. "I will never, under _any_ circumstances, deny food as a punishment. You will be consuming great amounts of energy as we go, and you will need to be well fed and well rested to supply that energy. Now, eat."

Lea carefully pulled apart the leaves to reveal a fillet of fish, with what looked like a small amount of salt and pepper sprinkled over it. The faint scent of coconut touched his nose as the steam spiraled up. "What is this?"

"Salmon, with salt and pepper."

Lea blinked in surprise; had Xehanort been carrying fish around in his pack? "Where did you get it?"

Xehanort used a dagger to tear off a chunk of meat from his own fillet and ate it. "I caught it. There is a river not far from here."

"How did you catch it? You don't have a fishing pole!"

"A pole is only necessary if you're going after the larger fish. Some can easily be caught with a line held in one's hand. Now eat, Lea. We have places to be."

Lea looked down at the meat. It had stopped steaming, but it was still very hot. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Use your fingers. We will get you a mess kit later on today."

Xehanort turned to eating his own fish then, and Lea carefully tried to tear a bit of meat off, but the hot meat burned his fingers. Contrary to what many seemed to think, he wasn't immune to heat or fire outside of his own, a fact that annoyed him greatly. After waiting a few minutes for it to cool a bit more, he finally just picked it up, leaves and all, and ate it while holding it like a sandwich. The meat had a smokey, slightly sweet flavor, and to his surprise, Xehanort had eaten the leaves his had been wrapped in, and he encouraged Lea to do the same.

"Fig leaves are good for you. They are a good source of vitamins, iron, and calcium, among other things. Eat them."

"Not trying to poison me or anything, are you?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes. "Just eat the damned leaves, Lea. I don't have time to listen to you. We have far more important things to be talking about."

Lea huffed. "Fine." he ground out before doing as he'd been told. Though they had been dried up by the heat of the fire, they didn't taste half bad, a stronger version of the fruity flavor he'd detected in the meat.

Xehanort waited for him to finish, and then he started to speak.

"I have a lot to teach you and not enough time to do it in." he said in a calm, even tone that reminded Lea of the days before Radiant Garden's fall, of Heir Xehanort speaking cordially with people he met in town. He had roamed freely through town on a regular basis, with only Dilan, Braig, or Aeleus for protection. Not that he had needed it; the people of Radiant Garden had adored him.

And look how he had repaid that?

"Pay attention!" Xehanort's voice cracked like a whip, startling Lea out of his thoughts. "I am speaking!" Lea looked at him and nearly shivered at the look in his eyes. Xehanort's golden eyes were glowing with power, and they seemed to pin Lea in place. "When I am speaking, I expect you to listen, Lea. I have no patience for such inattentiveness."

"And what if I don't want to listen to you?" Lea snapped.

"Then you will die trying to bring Isa home. Two years you have had that keyblade, and you have learned nothing about using it."

"Well, it's not my fault that no one had time to teach me anything."

"Did you even ask? Or did you let them assume that you would teach yourself?"

"I.." Lea paused. "I... just assumed that they would teach me when they had time. Everyone was too worried about looking for you."

"And who was going to do that? Master Yen Sid is retired. Master Mickey has a world to run. Master Aqua has her hands full with Ventus and Terra, and Master Riku is committed to the search for me."

"Aren't there other masters left, aside from the council I mean?"

Xehanort inclined his head a bit. "A good number, but bringing any of them in could potentially backfire, and Master Yen Sid is aware of that."

"Why?"

"Tell them that Master Xehanort wishes to summon Kingdom Hearts, and what do you think will happen?"

"They would want to stop you, right?"

"Oh assuredly, some of them will, but what about the rest of them? Remember that the plan was to incite a keyblade war by doing what?"

"By summoning Kingdom Hearts..." Lea trailed off, and then his eyes widened, and he looked at Xehanort in shock. "They would have helped you?"

"Or at the very least refused to help stop me. One or two might have even agreed to train you, but only because you would have been one of the seven lights needed to forge the X-blade. Rather than take the risk, you were left to your own devices."

"That's not why you're offering to teach me, is it? So I can be one of those lights?"

Xehanort looked at him. "No," he said in a clipped tone.

There was a long pause, in which Xehanort didn't move his gaze, and Lea felt like he was back in school, after being (correctly) accused of putting thumbtacks on his teacher's chair.

"Today, we will visit the castle town outside of Lumaria's castle, and we will get you what you need to travel the worlds." Xehanort finally looked away, and Lea nearly sighed as he relaxed.

"Like what?"

"You need a mess kit for one: knife, spoon, fork, and bowl. You also need a fishing line with a hook and lure, so I can teach you how to fish for yourself. A knife or dagger, as well as a sheath and sharpening stone for it is a must. You will find yourself using it quite often. A bracelet made from survival cord is also very useful. It can be unwound and used for all manner of things, from tying up bundles of kindling for easy transport, to tying tree branches together to form a makeshift shelter. A small metal canister with matches and tinder is also very important."

"Wait, I'm a fire elemental. Why would I need matches?"

"Your magic may not always be available to you, or it might be too dangerous to use. There are multiple reasons, so it's better to be prepared."

"I suppose that's true. What else then?"

"I'd like to find you a small hatchet, for cutting firewood, a good quality tent that can shrink and fit into a pocket, and finally, a way for you to carry it all." Xehanort gestured towards Lea's small backpack. "That little thing is not up to the job, and I expect it to fall apart fairly quickly. There are spells I can cast on your coat pockets that will make everything you put in them shrink down until you fish them back out again, but I'm not sure you would want me touching your coat."

"Wait," Lea said as something occurred to him, ignoring the thing about his coat for the moment, "How am I going to pay for all of this? I don't have any munny."

Xehanort waved that off. "Do not concern yourself with it. I will handle it."

"You?"

"Of course." Xehanort gave him an amused look. "Did no one tell you that apprentices are supported by their masters until the Mark of Mastery exam?"

"Seriously?"

"Of course. One cannot expect children to pay their own way, after all."

"But I'm not a kid."

"No, but you are still an apprentice, _my_ apprentice actually, so I am obliged to support you until you either pass the Mark of Mastery, or I throw you out." Xehanort smirked. "Behave, and I might even give you an allowance."

Lea bolted upright and stared at him with wide eyes. " _Your_ apprentice? What do you mean by 'your apprentice'?"

"Yes," Xehanort's smirk widened, "my apprentice. That's traditionally what it's called when a master takes on a pupil."

Lea felt his mouth moving, but without any sound coming out, which made Xehanort laugh. It was a sound that he hadn't heard since before Radiant Garden's fall, and it made him shiver a little.

"Why does that surprise you so, Lea?"

Lea ducked his head and grumbled. "Why?"

"Because I want you to learn."

"That can't be all of it."

"I have my reasons. You don't need to know all of them now. It's enough for you to know that I want you to properly know how to handle a keyblade, and that having you along will prevent you from tearing your hair out while waiting for news about Isa."

"I still don't trust you."

"I wouldn't expect anything otherwise. Now," Xehanort stood up, and Lea felt the remaining heat from the coals vanish abruptly, like it had never been there at all, "gather your things. We have an appointment to keep."

**OOOOOO**

A couple hours' hike later found the two wandering through the outskirts of the town that surrounded Lumaria's castle. The place was bustling with activity, and Lea tried not to stare at it as they went through with their hoods up. No one seemed to pay them any mind, why or how he didn't know, and people just stepped out of their way without even looking at them. He wanted to ask Xehanort how it was possible, but he could barely hear himself think over the noise.

Vendors announcing their wares, merchants haggling with their customers, children shrieking and and yelling as they ran up and down the flagstone streets, young women gossiping on corners, men singing bawdy songs as they worked. The sound was unreal to Lea. People were pressed in from all sides, and it was all he could do to keep his sight on Xehanort, who was walking several feet in front of him. People just seemed to move aside as Xehanort neared them, and they closed back in after he had passed. Radiant Garden had open air markets once or twice a year, but it was nothing like he was seeing here. On his previous visits to Meadowseele, he'd portaled closer to the castle, so he'd missed this before.

"What the hell was with all of that?" he finally asked as they neared the castle and the crowds began to ease.

Xehanort didn't pause in his stride as Lea quickened his pace to walk beside him. "Meadowseele is a pre-industrial world. They have the printing press, the collar harness for horses, the bloomery for making steel in small amounts, and a few other forms of simple technology, but that is all. No automation, no mass production. As a result, most goods are hand crafted, and are sold at markets such as the one we just went through. If you need or want anything, that is where you get it, unlike Radiant Garden, which has stores stocked with mass produced items. That is why the market is so busy."

"Okay, that makes sense, but Lumaria was around higher technology for years, when he was with the Organization. Why doesn't he just bring the stuff here?"

"Because the infrastructure to support it is not in place yet, though I assure you that I am working on it." said an accented voice.

Lea jumped in surprise and looked up to find Lumaria standing there in front of them, with the faintest hint of a smirk touching his lips, and what appeared to be two royal guards flanking him. The previous times that Lea had seem him, he'd been dressed rather simply in a linen shirt and leather trousers. Now, he couldn't have looked more different. The first thing to catch Lea's attention was the ivory colored, form fitting tunic with a mandarin collar that went to Lumaria's knees and was covered with fine details that had been embroidered in with red thread. Baggy pants of the same color as the thread were visible under the tunic, along with the white slippers that covered his feet. His hair was longer, and it was far more sleek and smooth than he'd ever seen it before, and it was kept out of his face by some kind of crown that thinned and tapered down as it disappeared under the hair. It was made out of gold and silver, set with the shapes of flowers and leaves, and had a deep red stone at the center of each flower.

"It is very rude to stare, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from his left, startling him again. He blinked and saw that Lumaria's smirk had widened.

"Well aren't you the textbook definition of classy." he snarked, only to have his head knocked forward by a slap to the back of it.

"Be polite!" Xehanort barked.

"You don't know how many times Marluxia wanted to do that." Lumaria said as Lea rubbed the back of his head and glared at Xehanort.

Xehanort met his glare head on. "Xemnas as well, I assure you."

Lea looked away from the stare as another person, dressed in far simpler clothing, approached Lumaria and bowed in respect. To Lea's surprise, that other person then turned to Xehanort and bowed again.

Lumaria, without looking away from Xehanort, spoke a series of strange, rapid fire sounds that Lea hadn't heard since a few months after Marluxia's entry into the Organization. Like Demyx and Luxord before him, and Larxene after him, the pink haired Nobody had quickly abandoned his native language out of necessity, since the upper echelons of the organization hadn't believed in translators.

The servant bowed deeply and said something in response. Lumaria then nodded at Xehanort, who returned it with a short bow of his own, and Lea blinked in surprise as the pink haired king walked away.

The other person, who appeared to be a servant of some kind, then turned to Xehanort, and spoke another long series of sounds, and Lea felt his jaw fall open when Xehanort said something back, using those same strange sounds. Xehanort then began to follow the servant back towards the castle, while Lea stood there, staring in surprise.

Xehanort looked over his shoulder at him. "Let's go, Lea. We don't have all day."

Lea had to nearly run to catch up. "What language was that?"

"That," Xehanort said without looking at Lea, "was Santili, the language of this world. Surely you remember hearing it when Marluxia joined the Organization?"

"Well, yeah, but when did you learn to speak it?"

"It is one of the gifts of bearing a keyblade. We learn languages preternaturally fast."

"So.. I'll be able to do that too then?"  
"Eventually, yes. There are some things to learn, but once you have the basics down, you will start picking up languages left, right, and center."

They fell silent as they stepped into the castle and were led through a long series of winding corridors. Xehanort seemed familiar with the place, either that or he was really good at keeping his expression neutral, while Lea fought the urge to gawk at everything. The castle's architecture was strange, almost as though two or more styles had been mashed together to create one, but everything seemed to fit together well. Heavy stone carvings and brilliant colors blended together seamlessly with marbled columns and intricate tile floors. Large windows and mirrors filled the interior with light while tall spires soared to the sky above.

They finally reached a set of double doors, and the servant said something to Xehanort, who nodded. Xehanort put his hand on one of the door handles, but then he paused and looked at Lea.

"You will be shown to the room you will be staying in today and tonight shortly." he said seriously. "There will be other people waiting for you there. Do as they tell you, and give them no trouble, or you will answer to me. Do not embarrass me, Lea Rosso, or I will pack you straight back to Radiant Garden, do you hear me?"

Lea waved a hand at him. "Yeah, I got it."

Xehanort let go of the door handle and took a step towards him, eyes bright. "What was that? Do you want to try that again?"

Lea only barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

"Good. After lunch, we will go into town for what you need, and then we will join Lord Fiore for dinner. You will address him by his title unless he gives you permission to do otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Yeah," Xehanort glared at him, and Lea sighed. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

Xehanort held his gaze for a moment, and then he took a step back. "I will see you after lunch then."

"Wait..?" Lea's head snapped up as Xehanort stepped through the double doors and closed them behind him. "What do you mean 'after lunch'?"

The servant said something and began to walk away, and Lea scurried to follow him as he was led down the corridors to another door, this one a single. Inside was a large – by Lea's standards anyway – room, with a bed under the opposite window, and a door that presumably led to a bathroom on the right wall. Next to that door was an ornate, gilded floor mirror, and against the left wall was a small, round table, set with linen and china, and three women were standing in front of it, waiting.

There was another exchange that Lea didn't understand between his escort and the three women, before the man stepped out.

Lea shivered at the smiles the three directed his way. He heard the door shut behind him, and before he could even begin to process things, the three women had moved and were tugging him towards the door on the right, chattering to each other all the way. On the other side of the door was a bathroom, as he'd suspected, which had been done in vibrant shades of blue tile with gold trimming, and in the middle of it was the largest tub he'd ever seen. It was full of steaming water, with towels stacked neatly nearby, and an array of little glass bottles filled with various liquids lined up neatly on the edge.

Lea was tugged over to the tub, and he yelped when hands began pulling at his clothes, unzipping his coat, while one of the women knelt down and began to pull his boots off.

"What the hell are you doing! I can undress myself, thank you! Hey, wait! Hold on!"

They ignored him, and Lea felt his face begin to heat up as his coat was pulled off, followed by the tank top he'd been wearing under it. His bag, that he'd been carrying over one shoulder, had already been put aside, and soon he found himself practically tossed into the tub. Before he could make any move to stand up or find a way to get away from the three crazies that were in the room with him, what had to be a full bucket of water was dumped over his head, followed by two pairs of hands going to work on his hair.

"Hey, c'mon here!" He reached up to stop them, only to get his hands smacked away. The three began chattering to each other again as they worked the gel and hair spray that Lea had used to keep his hair spiked out, and Lea grumbled to himself. At least they weren't - !

"Seriously!" he yelped as one used a soft cloth to begin soaping him up. He reached up and snatched the cloth, and this time his hand wasn't smacked. "For the love of... I am going to kill Xehanort later..." Seeing no help for it, Lea began to wash himself as the women continued to work on his hair. After a few minutes they rinsed it and him by dumping more water over his head, and then they hauled him out of the tub. Once again they ignored his protesting as they dried him off, wrapped him in a large towel, and dragged him back into the other room.

Clothes had been laid out on the bed, and Lea found himself quickly dressed in a much simpler version of what Lumaria had been wearing earlier, before he was pushed down into a chair as the three women once again attacked his hair. They tugged and pulled on it, chittering to each other in that weird sounding language of theirs, and to Lea's ears it sounded like they were arguing about something. Finally, they seemed to come to some sort of agreement, and one of them began brushing his hair out. With the force they'd used in getting him bathed, Lea half expected her to just yank the knots out, but to his surprise, the woman was gentle, carefully untangling the knots and snarls until his hair was lying smooth and straight.

She then proceeded to undo all of that, sweeping the hair on the right side of his head over until it hung down by the left side of his face. Lea smelled something then, but he couldn't identify it as he felt it being worked into his hair, followed by several more brush strokes. He was then nudged to his feet, spun around, and walked up to the floor mirror aside the bathroom door.

Lea couldn't stop the small gasp that escaped him as soon as he saw his reflection; he doubted that his parents, had they survived the world's destruction, would have recognized him. _He_ barely recognized him. The clothes he was in were nearly a palette swap of Lumaria's: white trousers, red knee-length tunic with white embroidery, and white slippers. The red of the tunic was a near perfect match for his hair, only a shade or two darker, and the embroidery was nowhere near the elaborate scrollwork that he had seen on Lumaria's tunic, with only a few curving lines stitched in here and there.

His hair had no part and had been swept over to hang on the left. The smooth neatness that had been brushed into it earlier was gone, leaving it looking a bit like he'd just rolled out of bed. He reached up to touch it, but his hand was smacked away, hard enough that the sound echoed in the room. Lea yelped, shook his hand out, and then held it close to his chest as he was then grabbed by the shoulders and marched over to the small table that he'd noted before he'd been dragged into the bathroom.

He was none too gently pushed down into a chair, and after an indignant look at the one who'd pushed him, he let his gaze drift down to the table, and his eyes widened. He's never seen so much silverware in a single place before.

Before him, in the center of the setting, was a dinner plate. To its left, were three forks of varying sizes; on its right were two knives and a spoon. Above the knives and spoon were three glasses, and above the forks was a small plate with a butter knife lying diagonally across it. A napkin that was a very dark pink, (Rather like Lumaria's hair, Lea realized) was rolled tightly into a tube and held closed by an ornate metal ring. It was lying horizontally across the dinner plate, though no sooner had he made note of it than it was picked up by one of the women, unrolled, and placed across his lap.

The room's main door opened then, and he looked up to see another servant, carrying a small plate, walk into the room. The small plate was set in front of him, on top of the larger one, and the smell of meat and vegetables rose up from the triangular-shaped pastry in front of him. A finger pointed to a particular fork, and Lea hesitated a moment before reaching for it. His grip was quickly adjusted by the same person who had pointed to the fork, and Lea gulped and took a breath.

The next hour was the one of the most bizarre of his life as he learned the ins and outs, and the dos and don'ts, of a formal meal. The lesson came in the form of a full, five course meal: appetizer, soup, fish (He'd just _had_ fish for breakfast!) some kind of spicy chicken that came served on a bed of rice, and a coffee flavored sponge cake that had layers of a strange, soft cheese that he'd never had before. He felt full to bursting when it was done, and the three women as well as the man serving the meal had frowned in disapproval at the burp that had escaped him once he'd laid his napkin on the table to the left of his plate like they'd directed.

A knock at the door prevented the scolding that was no doubt about to happen, and Lea nearly sagged in relief to see Xehanort (Really, relieved to see Xehanort?) on the other side when it was opened. Lea stood up and groaned as his full stomach demanded that he sit back down, and he couldn't miss Xehanort's amused smile as he walked towards the door.

"Did you enjoy your lunch?" Xehanort asked as one corner of his mouth curled up into a smirk. Lea managed a half-hearted glare as he noted the Keyblade Master was now dressed in the same baggy pants and tunic outfit that Lea was in, only his tunic was green with golden embroidery that perfectly matched his eyes. His hair was also pulled back in what appeared to be a braid that started at his forehead and went down to the ends of his hair.

"I hate you right now." Lea groaned. "Why did I have to do all of that?"

"It's good information to have." Xehanort replied as he turned and began to walk down the hallway, and Lea sighed and began to follow him. "Trust me, Lea, tonight won't be the last time you have to dine with royalty."

"Oh yeah?" Lea snarked. "Why? Do you know any other kings that will share their table with you? Ones that don't want you dead, I mean?"

Xehanort stopped abruptly and then spun on his heel to look at him. "I am this close -" He held up his hand with his index finger and thumb a fraction of an inch apart. "- to just throwing you back through a portal. One would almost think that you don't want to find Isa, by the way that you're behaving."

"I do!"

"Then _why_ do you persist in this maddening behavior?"

"You know why."

Xehanort's eyes narrowed. "Enlighten me."

Lea growled under his breath. "I told you before, I don't fucking trust you, and I don't know why I allowed myself to be convinced to follow you!" he snarled. "There, happy now?"

"As I said before, I know that you don't, and I do not care. Now, this is your final warning. Lose the attitude, or you can go back to Radiant Garden and wait."

Xehanort glared at him for another second or two, and then he spun around and strode off down the corridor. Lea growled again and followed him.

The bustle of the market had died down some when they arrived, but it was still fairly busy. Xehanort took him by the arm and began to guide him to the correct stalls and shops. Their first stop was the blacksmith. Xehanort spoke in rapid fire Santili to the woman in charge of the place, who looked shocked for a moment, before she quickly directed them away from the blades that were out on display towards the back end of the shopfront.

There she laid out several blades, ranging in length from a short sword to a tiny knife. Some were plain, while others had intricate designs etched into the metal.

"What are you looking for?" Lea asked as he looked over the pieces.

"Good quality craftsmanship." Xehanort said in a hushed tone as he picked up one of the daggers to look it over.

"What, no cold iron to ward off any ghosts and ghouls?"

"Not in this universe."

"Won't iron kill some magical creatures?"

"So will a fireball to the face, or a keyblade to the skull. All you need is a good-quality steel blade, a holster to carry it in, and a sharpening stone to maintain the edge." Xehanort laid the blade back down and picked up another. "Now, hush up for a moment."

Lea huffed. "Fine." He stepped back and pretended to be interested in a dark corner of the room up near the ceiling as Xehanort continued to look over the blades. After a few minutes, he spoke in more Santili to the woman who ran the shop and handed over some munny. She shook her head and tried to give the munny back, but Xehanort refused to take it. He spoke to her some more, handed over more munny, and only then did he finally turn to Lea.

"Pull up your right sleeve, Lea."

Lea looked away from a spider building a web and shook his head. "Huh?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes. "Pull up your right sleeve." he repeated as he held some kind of leather cuff in his hands. Lea eyed the cuff; it was mostly a solid piece of brown leather, though it had a couple of narrow straps and buckles, along with a pouch or slot of some kind.

"Now, Lea, I don't have all day."

Lea shook his head again and and pulled back the right sleeve of his red tunic. Xehanort wrapped the cuff around his forearm, using the two straps to buckle it on.

"How's that feel?" he asked. "Too tight? Not tight enough?"

"It feels kinda weird, actually." Lea murmured thoughtfully as he flexed his hand a few times.

"You'll get used to it. I don't want you to ever take this off, unless it's to sleep or bathe. Eventually, the leather will soften and conform to the shape of your arm, and you'll stop noticing that it's there."

"Sooo, what's this for?"

"This." Xehanort grasped Lea's hand and used that to hold his arm out so he could slide a dagger inside the slot that was on the inside of the cuff, facing Lea's body. "These are very handy to have. The holster has a quick release, so you can slide the blade down into your hand quickly and silently if you need it."

"Why not just use the keyblade then?"

"Your keyblade appears with a great deal of noise and a flash of light, hardly the thing to have if you're trying to be secretive. A hidden blade can save your life."

"Speaking from experience?" Lea couldn't hide the curiosity in his voice.

"You have no idea." Xehanort adjusted the straps again. "Here, flick your wrist."

"What? How?"

"Just flick your wrist, like you're waving someone off."

"Okay." Lea did so, and the dagger dropped down into his hand, blade down. He quickly grabbed the handle and held it up. "Seriously?"

"As I said before, having one of these can save your life, not to mention it's just plain easier to have it in an arm holster so it's always with you. Now let me show you how to secure it in there properly. You don't want it to just fall out when you don't need it, or even worse, not fall out when you do need it."

Xehanort spent a moment showing Lea how to secure the dagger in the holster, and then he slipped a tiny grindstone into another pouch. "That's for keeping the blade sharp. I'll show you how to do that later on. Now, let's get moving, we have a lot more to get before we have to be back at the castle in time for dinner."

**OOOOOO**

Hours later, Lea dragged his feet behind Xehanort as they made the walk, or in Lea's case, the trudge, back up to the castle. The first thing they'd gotten after his dagger and holster was a new pack to carry everything in, and Xehanort had made him put it on right away. He'd adjusted the straps, instructed Lea on how the pack should be riding on his back and shoulders, and then had filled it with everything imaginable: a tent, a bedroll, fishing line, lure, and hook, a mess kit, and too many other things to name at the moment.

Lea had been quick to notice that, everywhere they went, Xehanort had been treated with a great deal of respect, and not a small amount of awe. Merchants seemed to fall all over themselves to serve him when he stopped at their stalls and storefronts, and there were a few occasions where he had to shove his munny at them to make them take it.

He kept silent as he followed Xehanort back into the castle and back to his room.

"Drop off your things and get washed up for dinner." Xehanort instructed him, and Lea sighed.

"What?" Xehanort asked, giving him an annoyed look.

"Those three women aren't going to... molest me again, are they?"

Xehanort's eyes narrowed again. "What do you mean? What did they do?"

"Apparently, they seemed to think that I was incapable of bathing and dressing myself. One of them even tried to scrub me down, and would have if I hadn't snatched the cloth out of her hands. And I really could have lived without them drying me everywhere, and I mean _everywhere_."

"I will speak to Lumaria about it then." Xehanort said in a firm voice. "Their behavior was uncalled for. He will handle it."

"He's not going to have them, like, executed or anything, is he?"

"No, but he will make sure that they know that their behavior was unacceptable. He holds the castle staff to very high standards and does not allow them to get away with anything inappropriate."

"Well, I just hope then that I don't do anything 'inappropriate' at dinner here and make an idiot of myself. Lumaria will laugh at me, I know he will."

Xehanort smiled at him, which struck him as almost unreal for a moment. "You will be fine, Lea. He knows that you are new to a formal table and won't hold it against you if you make a mistake. Now go get washed up. No doubt there are some new clothes in there for you to wear. Once you're ready, wait for me, and I will come and fetch you in a few minutes."

"What about the dagger? Do I leave it on?"

"At Lumaria's table, yes. He knows, and he's fine with it. It is the same if you were to dine with Lord Ansem. Now, I must go and ready myself. I will see you shortly. Do not wander off."

Lea bit back the sarcastic reply at the last second. "I'll be here." he said instead, and Xehanort nodded once, turned, and walked off down the hallway, and the soft sound of his slippers against the polished stone floor echoed as Lea turned and went inside his room.

As Xehanort had predicted, there was another suit of clothes lying neatly across the bed. Lea knew that he knew next to nothing about fashion (especially after spending ten years wearing the same thing every day) but even he could tell the clothes were the same style and cut as the ones he already had on. The embroidery was more elaborate and detailed, but Lea couldn't bring himself to care as he stripped off the red tunic he was wearing and wandered into the – thankfully free of women – bathroom to clean up a bit. Once that was taken care of, he dressed in the new clothes, put on the slippers that had been left for him, and ran his fingers through his hair the best he could to neaten it up a little, as the wind had blown in around quite a bit while in town.

He'd just finished that when there came a knock at the door. "Let's go, Lea." Xehanort said from the other side. Lea took a deep breath that was released as a sigh, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway.

Xehanort was also dressed differently, and his hair looked like it had been rebraided, and he gave Lea a quick up and down before he nodded in approval. He set off down the hallway again, and Lea hurried to catch up.

"There are a couple of things you should be aware of before we reach the formal dining room." Xehanort said in a low voice as they continued on.

"Oh?" Lea raised an eyebrow. "Like what? Did Lumaria hire table dancers or something?"

Xehanort gave him a chiding look, but Lea swore he could see the corner of his mouth twitching for a second.

"First of all, you need to drop that casual use of his name. You do not have his permission to use it, and you will offend a great number of people with it. He is very well loved here, and it's never a good idea to anger the general population of a world."

"Like you wouldn't know anything about that, right?"

Xehanort growled but otherwise ignored Lea's remark. "His title is _Fiore Isa_ – use it."

"Ee-sah," Lea said slowly, feeling out the word. "Wonder how that's spelled?"

"In the alphabet you and I are used to, it's spelled the same way as your Isa's name. Thousands of years ago, before the keyblade war, the part of the world that became Meadowseele was home to people from two different cultures. Once they were isolated by the Sundering, the two cultures combined and blended into one, including their languages, their architecture, and their food."

"Well that explains a lot then, though I'm not sure how to feel about another version of Isa's name being that peacock's title."

"That 'peacock' is Fiore Isa to you, remember that. As for the word, it means 'lord' and is often used to refer to their gods as well. It's a word in a few other languages actually, so you'll no doubt encounter it again.

"Now, moving on, there will be two women at the table. One will be at the foot of the table. She is dark haired, dark eyed, and her name is Iyla. You may speak freely with her as long as you are polite and respectful."

"And the other?"

"She will be sitting across from us. You are not to speak to her at all, not a word. She looks a great deal like Lumaria, so you will know it's her right away. Try to avoid looking at her if at all possible."

"What, is she going to turn into a crazed hatchet murderer if someone pays her too much attention or something?"

"Carlotta Fiore is disgraced and dishonored. Lumaria only allows her to live because she is his mother. Forcing her to join him and his company at meals is part of her punishment."

Lea felt his eyes widen. "What the hell did she _do_?"

"That is not my story to tell. Now," Xehanort paused in front of a massive set of doors, with a stern faced servant standing on either side, "when we get in there, I will lead you to where we are sitting. We stand behind our chairs until Lumaria and Iyla are seated. Once we are seated, do not touch anything on your plate until he has done so for himself. Understood?"

"Yeah," Xehanort looked at him. "I mean, yes, Master Xehanort."

Xehanort looked at him for a moment longer, and then he turned and nodded to the two men standing on either side of the doors. They slowly swung the doors open, and Xehanort led Lea inside.

**OOOOOO**

Dinner had been kinda interesting in some respects and awkward as hell in others, Lea thought later.

The dining room had been surprisingly small, as was the table in the center of it. The heavy, wooden table that was polished to a near mirror shine looked large enough to seat at least eight, but for this meal it only held five.

Lumaria's mother was seated across from Lea and Xehanort, just as Xehanort said she would be, and the pink haired woman made no attempt to look at anyone or anything aside from her plate. Lumaria, Xehanort, and Iyla ignored her completely, while the servants that were serving her meal only interacted with her place setting. They moved around her like she wasn't even there, and Lea could feel the sense of defeat from the other side of the table. Her clothing was very simple, with no ornamentation. Even the servants had nicer clothes than her. What had she done to warrant such treatment? Despite Xehanort's orders to ignore her, Lea kept finding himself glancing in her direction every few minutes.

Iyla, who looked to be a little older than Carlotta, was a bright, cheerful lady with hair as black as the night sky and eyes the color of rich, dark wood. She was a short thing, and Lea was willing to bet that the top of her head barely came up to his chest. She was dressed very similarly to Lea and Xehanort, but her tunic had more of a feminine cut and lacked the banded collar worn by the men at the table. To Lea's immense relief, she spoke his language, having learned it from Lumaria, and she was happy to talk to him about various subjects during the six course meal that followed.

She was careful, he was quick to note, to avoid talking about Lumaria's life before his time in the Organization. She also neatly avoided any mention of the first few months after his return. Everything else though, was fair game. He chatted with her easily, and she was able to give him a few hints here and there about the dining experience, as there were a lot more utensils on the table than there had been during his lesson earlier. As the main course arrived, Lea was shocked to learn that he had gotten most of the way through the meal with very little difficulty.

"It must be because of the pretty lady that I'm talking to." he said with a smile.

Iyla blushed, and he had the strongest feeling that if she could have swatted his arm, she would have. "You are such a charmer."

"Don't let him fool you." Lumaria said with a smirk from the head of the table. "He can be quite the fireball when he wants to be."

"Gods save us all." Xehanort muttered, and Lea felt the knot in his stomach ease as Lumaria and Iyla laughed.

The rest of the meal passed pleasantly, and Lea was surprised at how much he'd enjoyed himself by the time he was dismissed from the table.

"Lumaria has granted you permission to explore the castle." Xehanort told him outside the dining room. "If a door is open and no one is guarding it, then you may enter. However, do not stay up all night. Try to get to bed early, as we will be leaving straight after breakfast. So make sure your things are organized and ready to go before then." Lea nodded absently, and Xehanort turned and walked away. He met Lumaria down the hall, and the two of them walked off together, talking in Santili as they went. Lea watched them until they disappeared around a corner, and then he turned in another direction and wandered off, nearly waddling after the size of the meal he had consumed. It was still light out, and though he was starting to wind down, he wasn't ready for sleep yet, so he decided some exploration would be just the thing.

The castle was larger on the inside than it looked from the outside, and Lea quickly lost track of all the rooms and hallways he encountered as he wandered aimlessly through the various spaces. There was the ballroom, with its enormous chandeliers and three story high windows, a long hall with walls made of mirrored glass, an elaborate bath with brightly patterned tiles and greenery spilling from planters in the walls, a two story library that had every inch of shelving stuffed with books and scrolls, and the throne room that had been decorated with a theme flowers and climbing plants that looked like it was barely used, if ever. By the time he wandered into the last room of the night, he was wishing he'd gotten a drink from the servants before leaving the table, due to how much time he'd spent walking about.

His thirst was pushed to the back of his mind, however, when he found the last room.

It appeared to be a shrine or church of some kind. It was a decent size, about twice as large as the castle chapel in Radiant Garden, and it was lit with the soft glow of candles that were mounted on wall sconces, on stands that lined the center isle, and hung from the ceiling in chandeliers. Stained glass windows lined the walls on either side, but it was full dark outside by then, and their designs really couldn't be seen. There were no pews or any form of seating, but there were cushions lined up neatly in rows on either side of the center isle, and he supposed they were for kneeling.

At the far end of the room, up on a dais, was an altar or table of some kind, with a stone bowl. Inside that bowl was a single tongue of flame, burning a bright yellow-white, while producing no smoke. Behind it, mounted on the back wall, was a large circular portrait. It depicted a tall figure inside a large yellow-orange circle that had spikes coming out of it in all directions. The figure – Lea couldn't tell if it was male or female - was dressed in a golden robe that swept down from the shoulders and widened as it neared the feet, and it had white hair that flared out in all directions from its head like flames. Eyes of fiery gold stared down at Lea, and he took a step back as he was struck by an intense feeling of familiarity.

"That is Sole Isa." came Lumaria's voice, soft and reverent, from behind him, and Lea had to swallow his heart back down as the pink haired king came up to stand beside him. Lumaria's blue eyes were fixed upon the painting when he spoke. "He is our god of sun, fire, and warmth, and our chief deity."

Lea looked back at the painting. "Why the hell does he look like Xehanort?"

"Actually, the question should be: why does Xehanort look like Sole?"

Lea gave him a strange look. "What do you mean?"

"This -" He waved his hand at the portrait. "-was painted over 500 years ago, when the castle was built. Possessions aside, I think we can assume safely that Xehanort was not alive then."

"Knowing him, it wouldn't surprise me." Lea muttered, and then he paused as something occurred to him. "Is that why everyone was acting weird around him today?"

"I assume you mean that they were bowing and scraping and refusing to take his munny?"

"Got it in one."

"That doesn't surprise me. He has denied multiple times that he is Sole, but people will believe what they want to believe."

"Do _you_ believe he is Sole?" Lea asked, genuinely curious. What other explanation was there for why Lumaria let the man responsible for so much destruction come and go so freely?

Lumaria shook his head slightly, still staring at the painting on the wall. "I do not. I believe that he could be connected to Sole in some way, but I do not believe that he is Sole himself.

"Then why...?"

Lumaria turned to face him. "Why do I allow him to wander freely through my world and give him shelter in my castle?"

"Yeah, that."

"Because I was the first vessel he freed."

Lea was suddenly glad that he hadn't found that drink, for he would have surely sprayed it across the table and burning flame. "What? When? You were a vessel?"

Lumaria turned back to the painting. "I was."

"But Xemnas sent Marluxia to Castle Oblivion to die!"

"No, _Saïx_ sent Marluxia to die, along with Vexen and the others. Xemnas knew that Marluxia was planning to betray him, but he wasn't concerned, because-"

"Because he knew he would have control of him soon enough." Lea finished. "So do you think he knew that...?"

"That Saïx and Axel were planning to betray him? Undoubtedly. The possession would have made it impossible for Saïx to keep secrets from him, even if Saïx didn't know that."

"So why then didn't your eyes turn yellow?"

"He had embedded a piece of his heart into mine the day before Marluxia left for Castle Oblivion, and he had no chance to strengthen that bond before Marluxia was killed." Lumaria shrugged. "I knew it was there, of course, just as Saïx and Xigbar knew, which is why I tried to usurp control of the Organization in the first place.

"Upon waking here as a complete person once more, I had hoped that the fragment would be gone, but it was still there. Upon dealing with everything else, it was the last thing I needed. Iyla knew that something was wrong, though I refused to tell her what, and she insisted that asking Sole for help would be a good idea. She finally convinced me to try, and no sooner had I asked the question than Xehanort appeared, and broke the possession in front of many of the castle staff." Lumaria smirked. "I'm sure that you can imagine how people reacted to that."

"Their king had just been helped by a god. I imagine that they went nuts."

"That they did, though I wasn't the king then. It did, however, make it much easier to kick my father off the throne not long after."

Lea grinned. "After all, you had Sole's backing."

"Exactly."

The two of them shared a moment of amusement, before Lea sobered.

"Do you really think he's changed?" he asked quietly, half expecting Xehanort to wander in and overhear him asking.

"I do." Lumaria said simply.

"I don't trust him."

"Of course you don't, and I can't say that I blame you, not after everything that he's done. Just... try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Freeing his vessels makes no sense if he's trying to start another Keyblade War."

Lea took a deep breath. "Right, though... I much preferred the old Xehanort, the one who didn't give a damn about his title, to this one."

Lumaria laughed quietly. "Come on. I'll lead you back to your room. You don't want to miss breakfast tomorrow."

"Right, because Xeh-xeh would never let me hear the end of it. He's stricter than my folks were."

They began to walk out of the chapel, and Lumaria snorted. "At least you didn't have my parents. My mother is an _Agochar_ for a reason."

"What the hell is an... _Agochar_?" Lea asked, stumbling over the pronunciation of the strange word, as they walked down the halls.

Lumaria ignored the question, and Lea opened his mouth to repeat it, but the sound of a piano being played touched his ears then, interrupting him.

"Who is that playing?" he asked instead, and Lumaria smirked at him.

"You will see soon enough."

Lea blinked. "Okay." The music increased in volume as they walked, and Lea felt the urge to just stand still and listen. If asked, he would freely admit that he knew nothing about music other than that he enjoyed listening to it, but even he could tell that whomever was playing was highly skilled. Ahead of them, warm light from an open door spilled out into the darkened hallway, and Lumaria slowed his steps and held a finger to his lips.

"He normally keeps the door shut while he's playing." he explained in a whisper. "He prefers the privacy, and he won't be happy if he catches us watching. So just glance in and keep walking."

"C'mon, it's not like it's Xehanort playing, is it?" Lea said, and Lumaria's smirk widened. "It is, isn't it?"

They stepped into the warm pool of light then, and he looked through the open door. It _was_ Xehanort, seated at a grand piano constructed from rosewood, with his back to the door. His fingers were flying across the keyboard as he swayed with the music, and Lea only stared until he felt Lumaria's hand on his shoulder, urging him on.

"I didn't know he played." Lea commented in a whisper as they continued on. "I don't remember anything like that before."

"If his amnesia was as severe as rumor had it, then it was likely that he simply couldn't remember that he knew how." Lumaria replied as the sound of the piano faded as they walked away from it.

The rest of the walk back to Lea's room was silent, and Lea was left standing at the door, realizing that Lumaria had neatly dodged his earlier question about an _Agochar_ as the king walked away.

Inside, he found sleep clothes laid out across the bed, and he went into the bathroom to take care of business, before changing clothes and crawling into bed. He expected his thoughts to keep him awake for a while, but to his surprise, he was asleep within a few minutes.


	3. White Room

_Dear Isa,_

_What the hell happened last night?_

_No, seriously, what was all of that?_

_Yeah, yeah, Xehanort was a prick in the morning, but you know, as the day went on, he almost seemed... nice. Strange, right? It almost made it hard to believe that this was the same guy that had ripped our hearts out years ago._

_And goddamn - Lumaria. It should be illegal for a man to be that pretty. He looked completely different than he did the last time I saw him. He looked... well, kingly. (Don't laugh!) He was still friendly to me, at least, though I practically got molested by some of his servants. Apparently, they seemed to think I couldn't bathe and dress myself, but I was surprised when Xehanort said that they'd overstepped their bounds and that he'd talk to Lumaria about it. Would you believe it, because I'm not sure if I do._

_And let's not forget the shopping trip. You know, he'd said he'd pay for everything I needed, but I was still expecting him to pick things out and then slap me with the bill, but he didn't. He paid for everything, even when he had to force the shopkeepers to take his munny._

_And speaking of that! Apparently the folks on Meadowseele think Xeh is one of their gods. Damned if he doesn't look like their sun god, Sole Isa (Yeah, apparently your name means "lord" over here.), and since a lot of the servants saw Norty break his possession of Lumaria, right after he asked Sole for help, then that just reinforced their belief. Makes me wonder if Norty planned it on purpose. He does Lumaria a favor and gains the clandestine assistance of an entire world, because really, who's gonna admit to seeing him there after that? That's if they even ask the right question. Ask about someone named Xehanort, and the people there will just say no, because really, as far as they are concerned, it's not Xehanort, but Sole that's wandering through town and staying at the castle on a regular basis._

_Weird, right?_

_Lumaria said to give him the benefit of the doubt, but really, I don't think I can. He's been not as bad as I had thought so far, but who knows how long until that changes?_

_Anyway, I gotta end this now, since I have to be at breakfast soon. I woke up early (Shocking, I know.) so I figured I might as well squeeze in a letter before we have to leave. I dunno where Xehanort is hauling me to next, though it's probably too much to ask for the food to be as good as it is here. Wherever it is, let's hope I leave it with my heart still where it belongs._

_Still missing you,  
_ _Lea_

**OOOOOO**

"So where are we going?" Lea asked as they walked out of town towards the empty field where they'd slept two nights before. He hefted his pack up and wondered, not for the first time, if he should have let Xehanort spell the pockets of his coat. Their nice clothes had been left behind in Lumaria's castle for the next time they visited, and they were back in their black coats and boots as they hiked.

"To a world long forgotten by the living." Xehanort said evenly as he walked just a few steps ahead.

"Well if that doesn't sound ominous." Lea muttered.

"Oddly fitting, I think." Xehanort commented as they walked on. "The world in question is very dangerous for those unprepared."

Lea stopped. "So why are we going there then?"

"Because I have my reasons that I will not explain here. Now stop lagging behind and keep up."

"Why in the hell did we have to come all the way out here? Why couldn't we just leave from the castle?"

"Because the people back there think of me as a god, and I'd like to keep it that way. Someone flying away on a keyblade, which they have seen before, could damage that belief."

"Gotta keep your ego properly stroked, I guess." Lea muttered to himself, and no sooner had he finished the sentence than a deluge of freezing cold water suddenly dumped itself over his head. He shrieked as it soaked his hair and ran down inside the collar of his coat.

"I heard that." Xehanort said from ahead of him.

"What the fuck did you do that for!"

"For your smart mouth."

"Like you never smarted off to whichever poor fool taught you."

Xehanort was suddenly standing in front of him, and Lea blinked. He hadn't seen him move. Xehanort's eyes were glowing and power rolled and crackled about him; it was like standing ahead of a powerful storm.

"Master Limahl," Xehanort said, his voice coming out as an angry hiss, "was a kind, generous, loving man that gave his all to ensure that Eraqus and I could live our lives the best we could. He literally saved us both. Do not _ever_ insulthim again."

Lea didn't say anything; he couldn't as Xehanort's presence made the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand up.

"Am I understood?" Xehanort asked, still speaking in a hiss, and Lea nodded frantically.

"Yes!"

"Yes what?"

"Yes, Master Xehanort!"

Xehanort nodded sharply, and then he turned around and continued walking. Lea, after taking a moment to stop his legs from shaking, followed.

**OOOOOO**

A few hours' flight later saw them flying high above a larger world, filled with dense forests that were brilliant shades of red and orange. Scattered among the trees were were abandoned, crumbling buildings, and some distance away, Lea thought he could see the remains of what appeared to be a decent sized city.

Xehanort paid none of it any attention. He flew on, flying low over the trees, and as Lea followed him, he became aware of a large group of Heartless below them. No, he realized, "large" was the wrong word. It was simply the largest gathering of the creatures he'd ever encountered, and though he couldn't see them through the thick canopy, he could sense the countless pairs of yellow eyes that were surely watching him as they came down for a landing in a clearing.

As they came in, they seemed to cross some invisible barrier, and the feeling of the Heartless seemed to vanish. Lea shook himself as they touched down in front of a small, one room shack.

"Come inside." Xehanort said as he dismissed his keyblade and went in. Lea eyed the small building with a critical eye. It looked like it had been well-constructed, but time had taken a toll on it, and it now looked weathered, beaten, and run down. The paint was peeling in multiple places, weeds choked the area around it, vines and other greenery had covered one of the walls and part of the roof, the brick chimney was cracked and crumbling, the door was hanging crookedly, and shingles were missing from the visible parts of the roof.

"We don't have all day, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from inside, and Lea sighed and slumped his shoulders for a moment before we straightened up and followed Xehanort inside.

His jaw fell up open when he walked in; the inside couldn't have looked more different than the outside. The space was small, no more than a few hundred square feet, neat, and well kept. The wall at the other end of the single room was nearly filled with a cobblestone fireplace with the stones inside and over the hearth blackened from heavy use. A hinged hook hung over the empty hearth, and wood was stacked in neat piles nearby, with a small metal box next to them. On the right side sat a large wooden table with a cabinet under it. A smaller, simpler table with two chairs sat in the center of the rough hewn floor. Across from the door were a pair of narrow cots, each with a chest at their foot. Lamps dotted the walls in a few places, with one hanging from the ceiling over the table, but they were dark and didn't look like they had been used in a while.

Xehanort shrugged his coat off, showing the plain white shirt and etched leather wrist cuffs that he wore under it, and hung it up on a hook beside the door. He then peeled off his gloves, showing the heavy ornate ring that marked him as heir to Radiant Garden's throne that he wore on his right hand, as well as the heavy watch on his left wrist.

"Drop your pack on one of those beds." Xehanort said, waving his hand vaguely in that direction. "I would advise hanging your coat up as well, and then I want you to join me outside."

Lea blinked. "Okay."

"Hurry up." Xehanort added as he disappeared through the door and into the bright sunshine outside.

"What the hell does he want now?" Lea muttered as he did as instructed. He did not, however, remove his coat. He stepped outside into the weed choked yard and absently rubbed his arms. Xehanort was waiting for him several feet away with his keyblade out and ready, and Lea shivered at the sight of it.

"Normally, the art of wielding a keyblade without looking like a clumsy fool trying to impress a girl is taught gradually, over the course of several years." Xehanort said in an even tone. "However, we do not have time for that. So I am afraid that you are going to have to learn the hard and fast way."

"What?" was the only thing Lea had time to say as Xehanort suddenly streaked towards him, almost too fast to be seen, and he jerked his head back when the edge of No Name suddenly appeared right in front of him, nearly touching his nose.

"If that had been a serious attack," Xehanort commented, "you would be dead now."

Lea was silent, too busy staring at the blade that was so close he could almost feel it.

Xehanort dropped his arm and stepped back. "Defend yourself."

"How?"

"Summoning your keyblade is a good start."

"Oh, yeah, right." Lea muttered as he looked down at his right hand. Proud Flame appeared in a flash just as the sound of rustling clothing fell on his ears. A second later, he found himself lying flat on his back in the dry grass, staring up at the sky.

Xehanort was looking down at him. "Never take your eyes off of your enemy. I could have easily taken your head off while you were looking away. Now stand up and try again."

Lea grumbled as he dragged himself to his feet, and his back protested the movement after being knocked so hard to the ground. He looked over at Xehanort, who had backed away several steps again, and then he blinked as he seemed to vanish. A second later, Lea found himself lying on his back for the second time.

"Get up!"

Lea got to his feet again, just in time for Xehanort to come at him a third time. "Defend yourself, Lea!"

Lea reacted without thinking, bringing up his keyblade and holding it across his chest. There was a _clang!_ as No Name struck, and though Lea was rocked backward, he stayed on his feet, and the swing was blocked.

Xehanort backed off. "Good." he said with a nod. "Again!"

No Name's swing came higher this time, and though Proud Frame was nearly wrenched from his hand, Lea was able to block that as well.

"Again!"

**OOOOOO**

Three hours later, Lea dragged himself inside the small shack. Muscles he hadn't known he had were aching fiercely, and sweat was dripping from his face. He collapsed onto the bed that he'd tossed his pack down earlier and groaned.

"Don't fall asleep, Lea." Xehanort told him. "If you do, your muscles will lock up painfully. Here," he added as he approached, a cup of water in his hands, "drink that, and then go outside and take a fast walk around the cabin for a few minutes to cool down."

"Do I have to?"

"No, but then I don't want to hear any whining when you try to stand up later."

"Fiiiiiine." Lea grumbled as he sat up and took the cup that Xehanort was holding out to him. It contained water, the most delicious water that Lea had ever had, and he quickly gulped it down.

Xehanort took the empty cup back. "Now, go take a walk. Stay within the clearing, but keep moving until I get back."

Lea forced himself to stand, wincing as his legs protested the movement. "Wait, where are you going?"

"To find dinner."

"Dinner? But we just had breakfast before we came here."

"On another world. It is late afternoon here. Now, go for a walk. I will be back soon." Xehanort ducked out the crooked door, and Lea stared after him for a moment before going outside himself.

Xehanort was already out of sight, and the sun was sinking low in the sky. Lea sighed and rubbed at his arms again, and his breath misted in front of him. He'd had to shed his coat during his training (if one could call it that) earlier, and now he wished he'd thought to grab it on his way out the door. A breeze blew through, rustling the dry grass and the turning leaves on the trees, carrying with it the hint of the oncoming winter. Despite years of moving between worlds on orders from the Organization, he still found it strange how the worlds could have such variance in their seasons and days. Meadowseele had appeared to be in its spring, and Radiant Garden had been in summer. Now this world was clearly in its autumn.

He set off at a slow walk around the small cabin, eyeing the invisible line that kept the Heartless away as he went. He couldn't see them in the deepening shadows under the treeline, but he could sense them. Their presence wasn't strong at all, and he could easily ignore it if he wished, but he knew they were there and watching him nonetheless.

His legs ached as he increased his speed to a more brisk pace, and he wondered how Xehanort was going to find dinner with all the Heartless that were no doubt tailing him.

What if Xehanort lost his heart again?

What if he never came back to the cabin?

Lea felt his mouth curl up into a smile as his thoughts continued along that vein. If Xehanort never came back, he wouldn't have to worry about this "Master Xehanort" business. He wouldn't have to worry about Xehanort attacking him with that damned keyblade of his. He could go back home to Radiant Garden!

Aaaaand wait for Isa to come home.

Damn it.

Lea heaved a sigh and hung his head as he started his third lap. Xehanort's warning about what the council would do to Isa once they no longer needed him played through his mind, and he shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the dropping air temperature. He pushed those thoughts to the side then and tried to lose himself in the numbing task of walking in a circle.

He'd just started his sixth lap, and the sun was vanishing below the treeline when Xehanort reappeared, carrying a small cloth sack in one hand and a dead rabbit in the other.

"Finish your lap and then come inside." he said as he walked into the cabin, and Lea shrugged and did as he'd been bid.

"How do you feel?" Xehanort asked once he was inside, and the door had been closed behind him."Still sore?"

"Yeah, some."

The lamps were lit, though Lea couldn't see any flames through the glass covers, and the room looked much warmer and more welcoming than it had earlier. Xehanort emptied the sack he'd been carrying onto the counter by the fireplace, revealing a handful of medium sized potatoes, a few carrots, two stalks of celery, a handful of mushrooms, and some green onions. He retrieved a bowl from the storage area under the counter, and the open door allowed Lea to catch a glimpse of several bottles of various sizes as well as a few pots and pans stored there. Xehanort set the bowl down on the counter and nodded his head at it, and Lea felt his eyes widen as it suddenly filled up with water.

"How do you do that?"

"I am a water elemental, that is how. Now," Xehanort looked at him. "wash and peel the potatoes and carrots, and then cut them up into small chunks. Dice the onion and celery up fine. I'm going to go butcher the rabbit outside."

"Oh, okay."

Xehanort paused on his way towards the door, rabbit in hand."You _do_ know how to peel and chop vegetables right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Good. Get it done before I come back in. The faster everything's prepared, the sooner we can eat."

"Right." Xehanort walked out the door then, closing the door behind him.

Lea set to doing his task, suddenly grateful for all those times he'd had to help with dinner preparations as a child. Years of helping in the kitchen made the job quick and easy, and he had it all wrapped up by the time Xehanort came back in, his hands bloodied, but full of meat.

"Done?" he asked, and Lea nodded.

"Good," Xehanort replied, and he used the water in the bowl to wash the blood from his hands after he'd dumped the meat on the counter. "Have you ever started a fire without magic before?"

"No,"

"Then come over to the fireplace. You're about to learn."

"Why would I ever have to do that? I'm a fire elemental."

Xehanort gave him an impatient look. "As I've already explained, your magic might not always be available to you. You could be exhausted, too sick to concentrate, or on a world where magic of any kind is met with hostility. Now come here."

Lea barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes again, but he stepped over and spotted a piece of flat piece of a dark gray stone with a sharp edge, and a shiny piece of steel, formed into a loop that reminded him of a knuckle buster, lying on the wooden mantel.

"Go over to that metal box by the firewood and open it." Xehanort instructed him, and Lea resisted another eye roll. The box contained a large pile of dry grass, slivers of wood, and a bundles of twigs in various sizes. "Take some of that grass and come back to the fireplace."

"Can't I just use the matches you got me?" Lea asked.

"Normally, yes, but I still want you to know how to start a fire without them. Now get over here."

Xehanort knelt down in front of the large stone hearth, and once Lea had joined him, he gave him a quick lesson in making a kindling nest out of the dried grass.

"Keep a small amount of it in yours hands though. You will need that when it comes time to strike the spark. Now grab the flint and steel off of the mantelpiece." Once Lea had stood up and done that, Xehanort had him kneel back down. "Now the easiest way to do this is to hold the flint firmly in your left hand, with your thumb lying across the top. Stuff that bit of grass I had you keep back under your thumb as well, as it will be easiest to catch a spark that way."

"Like this?" Lea asked, holding out his hand for inspection.

Xehanort nodded. "Just like that. Now loop the index, middle, and ring fingers of your right hand through the steel and close your hand into a fist."

"I could punch someone with this."

"You could, and you would do a lot of damage, but that's not what we're here for. I want you to angle the flint up, not straight up, but enough that you can use it to scrap slivers of metal off of the steel."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. That's what creates the spark, and the friction makes it glow with heat." He reached over and positioned Lea's hand at the proper angle, about 30 degrees, Lea thought. "Always have a glove on the hand holding the flint. The sparks are going to fly, and they will hurt for a short while if they land on bare skin."

"Good thing I haven't taken my gloves off then."

"Indeed. Now the goal here is to strike the flint with the steel, with a glancing blow, just enough to shave a little bit of metal off. Bring your hand up, and then swing it down quickly."

Lea's first attempt resulting in him nearly knocking the flint out of his hand, but Xehanort simply told him to try again. He missed the flint entirely on his second attempt. His third attempt came at a wrong angle and didn't produce a spark. Finally, his fourth attempt was perfect, and several sparks went flying in all directions, including one that landed on the grass held pinched between his thumb and the flint.

"Oh, I did it!" he said in a voice lit with excitement.

Xehanort smiled at him. "You did. Now blow on -"

Xehanort wasn't able to finish the sentence, Flushed with his success, Lea blew on the small, glowing ember, but he blew too hard, and it winked out.

"Well, I was going to say 'blow on it gently' but I suppose you now know that for the next time."

Lea felt his cheeks heat up a bit, and he nearly sighed in relief when Xehanort didn't comment on it. It took him three more tries to get a spark, and two more tries after that to get one that landed on the tinder. This time, he was more careful with his breath, and soon the small ember was glowing brightly and smoking slightly.

"Carefully lower it down and set the ember on the nest you've made, and don't stop blowing on it." Xehanort said in a quiet tone.

Lea did as instructed, and after several seconds, he was rewarded when the small ember suddenly became a small flame that began to quickly consume the small nest of tinder. Following Xehanort's instructions, he fetched some twigs from the metal box and added them, and he grinned widely when he saw them catch. This was followed by larger twigs, then small branches, and then finally, a single log. A second one was then added, and Lea sat back, unable to keep the smile from his face as the he watched the small fire burn, filling the room with warmth and flickering light.

Xehanort smiled at him. "Well done, Lea."

Lea scratched at his head. "Uhh, thanks. I didn't expect that to be so..." He paused, trying to find the right word.

"Satisfying?" Xehanort said as he stood up and moved towards the counter.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Doing things by hand often is There's just something about being able to say 'I did this myself with no help.' Now, go dump that bloody water in the bowl outside, while I start cooking."

"Do you need me to do anything else?"

"No, so after you dump the water, go sit at the table and try not to fall asleep. If memory serves me right, you never really learned how to cook, and that is something else that I will teach you, but not tonight."

Lea did so, and then he went and sat down in one of the rickety looking chairs and watched as Xehanort pulled a deep, iron pot out from under the counter and hung it over the fire. The room went quiet save for the crackling of the fire as Xehanort worked and Lea watched.

"So, how did you learn to cook?" Lea asked after a few minutes had passed.

Xehanort didn't answer at first. Instead he put the now flour coated pieces of meat into the skillet with a little oil. The sound of sizzling meat filled the small cabin.

"Master Limahl taught me." Xehanort finally replied once the sizzling had died down some. "He told Eraqus and me that one should always be able to take care of themselves, no matter where you were."

"Did you like learning that?"

"I loved it. I'd gone without multiple times as a child, and..." Xehanort paused for a long moment. "Let's just say that I intended to never let such a thing happen again if I could help it. Master also taught us how to forage, hunt, and trap, and I took those lessons to heart and excelled at them."

"What about Eraqus?"

" _Master_ Eraqus did not enjoy it. He especially disliked wilderness survival, but he was fully aware that Master would not have allowed him to skip it, so he went along with it."

Lea hesitated for a few seconds. "What about Ventus? Did you teach him?"

Xehanort went still, and Lea felt the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stand up as the lamps and fire seemed to dim suddenly. "Yes," he finally said, and the light levels in the room returned to normal. "I did."

Lea shivered and slumped down in the chair. What had compelled him to ask that? Was he out of his mind?

Xehanort said nothing else; he merely turned the meat over in the pot, which sent the smell of it spiraling up into the air. Lea's stomach growled appreciatively.

"I think someone might be a little hungry." Xehanort said casually. Lea didn't answer. He only folded his arms on the table and laid his head down on them. He then watched as Xehanort fetched a few more things out from under the counter, as well as the cut up potatoes and carrots and added them to the pot. Water, and what looked like red wine followed. Spices were added to the pot, and he gave it all a good stir before putting a lid on it and swinging it out so it wasn't sitting directly over the fire. He then stood up, wiped his hands off and then moved to retrieve something from the pockets of his coat, before he sat down at the table across from Lea.

"It's time for you to learn exactly what we are dealing with." he said as he laid a small leather bound book on the table between them. He spun it around to face Lea and opened it to the first page as the lamp over the table brightened.

The image on the page in front of him was of an old man, with wavy, iron gray hair that just lightly brushed his shoulders. Dark eyes peered out of a tanned face that seemed to have wrinkles carved deeply into it, and even though it was only a drawing in a book, Lea had the craziest thought that the old man was looking right at him and could actually see him.

"This is Master Beldinas." Xehanort said in a quiet voice. "He is the head of the Council of the Keys. He is a handful of years older than me, and he assumed his position not longer after Master Eraqus and I completed our Mark of Mastery. There is a persistent rumor that he reached the headship by killing his master, who had held it previously, but Master Limahl always dismissed that. What is known is that the man is very powerful, which explains why he was able to get, and hold onto, his position so young. Master warned me before I left the Land of Departure to become a Seeker, to avoid him if I could help it and get away from him as quickly as possible if I couldn't."

Lea looked up from the book to look at Xehanort. "Why?"

"There are reasons, and I will explain them later. Moving on." He turned the page, revealing another drawing, of a man that appeared to be younger than Master Beldinas by at least a few years. His hair was short and nearly white, while his skin and eyes were very dark.

"Master Shini," Xehanort explained "Beldinas' second. His magic is not very strong, all things considered, but he hits like a sack of bricks and can move deceptively fast. He joined the Council after the death of his master, who had the position before him."

Lea looked up from the book. "Do you have to inherit the right to be on this council?"

"Yes," Xehanort nodded. "It's passed down from master to apprentice." He turned the page again, revealing an image of a woman, with curly red hair that spilled over her shoulders, pale skin that was splashed with freckles, and blue-green eyes. "Master Aya. Beldinas' lover by all accounts and not above using her charms to get what she wants elsewhere. There are tales going about that she is the Council's covert assassin.

"Not long after she joined the Council, she came to the Land of Departure and tried to convince Master Limahl, who was on his deathbed then, to surrender the castle to her."

"Seriously?"

Xehanort nodded. "She did. She failed, of course. Though Master was too weak to even feed himself at that point, his mind was still sharp and clear, and he knew what she was doing. The castle's wards were nominally under Master Eraqus' control, and he used them to force her out of the castle when she wouldn't leave. She's been obsessed with gaining control of the castle ever since."

"That explains why the Council is so pissed at Aqua."

" _Master_ Aqua, Lea, but yes, that is correct." Xehanort let go of the book, and it closed as he stood up and moved over to the fireplace. "The Council has been trying to get control of the Land of Departure for decades, but it wasn't until Beldinas came to power that they really started to push it." He gave the stew a quick stir.

"Why? What's so important about it?"

"Aside from the waypoint, you mean?" Xehanort returned to the table, but he did not reach for the book. "I have only suspicions. I was not chosen as Master's heir, so I've no doubt that there are things about the castle that I was never told."

"I bet you were bummed about that."

"At first, but he explained his reasons why, and I understand why he made the decision he did. Now, as we were." Xehanort reached for the book and opened it up to another page. "Beldinas, Shini, and Aya are the three principal players of the Council, but the remaining four, starting with Master Crysa here, are not to be taken lightly."

Master Crysa looked like something about of a ghost story, Lea thought. Her skin was nearly milk white, which contrasted sharply with her black hair and gray eyes. Though the drawing only showed her from the shoulders up, he had the feeling that she was very tall and lithe in build.

"She is the youngest member of the council, and from what I've seen and heard, she's also Beldinas' lover. Whether she's aware that Aya is also filling that role is something that I can't say for sure. I've had the misfortune of meeting her a few times back before I lost my memory, and a more self righteous, uptight child you will never meet. She firmly believes that the Council is the ultimate authority, and that they're just looking out for the good of the worlds. Her stupidity aside, she is very powerful in magic, though nowhere near my level. Physical attacks aren't her strong suit, from what I've seen, but she still knows how to handle a keyblade."

Xehanort closed the book and pulled it back across the table towards him. "The remaining three members of the Council: Masters Josef, Astrid, and Iria, I know almost nothing about outside of their names. Still, one doesn't get on the Council by being weak, so I want you to be careful while we are out and about. Those other three could come at us from anywhere, and we would never know until it was too late." He got up to stir the stew again.

"What is the point of the Council?" Lea asked. "I'd never heard of them until they took Isa, so what purpose do they serve?"

Xehanort didn't look up from the bubbling stew. "Originally, they were formed after the Keyblade War to prevent such destruction from ever happening again. They took control of the scattered survivors and helped to rebuild the shattered remains of the worlds."

"So they had a good purpose."

"At first, yes, but that didn't last." Xehanort stood up and moved back to his chair. "No one is quite sure when they became corrupt. I imagine that it happened slowly over time, but I do know that by the time Master Alexia took a neglected child named Limahl into her home, they had become convinced that their way was the only way. In the years after the war, one had to have permission from them to take on an apprentice, to better prevent our numbers from growing too quickly as it did before the war erupted. Of course as each individual wielder went their separate way after the restoration was done, the Council's authority waned. Some have gone their entire lives without ever hearing from them. Master Mickey, from what I've heard, only knows of them through Master Yen Sid and only actually met them recently, after they took Isa."

"So can they still prevent someone from taking on an apprentice?"

"No, they can whine and throw a fit about it, as they did when Master Alexia took in Master Limahl, and when he did the same for me 33 years later, but they have no real authority anymore. This is the most active that they've been in a few centuries."

Lea rested his head in the palm of his right hand and drummed the fingers of his left on the well-worn surface of the table. "I wonder why."

"I imagine that my recent activities have something to do with it. Scratch that, I _know_ that they do. The Council has always been interested in me, enough that Master saw fit to warn me about them before I left home after my Mark of Mastery."

"Why? I can get why they would want to watch you after everything with the Heartless and Organization XIII, but why before then?"

Xehanort summoned his keyblade and laid it across the table then. "Because of No Name."

Lea looked down at the large keyblade in front of him; being this close to it allowed him to see how large it really was. He hadn't been this close to it since...

He shivered and looked away for a second until he heard the sound of it being picked up and dismissed.

"For what it's worth, Lea," Xehanort said quietly, "I am sorry about what I did to you and the others. I offer no excuse for my actions, only my assurance, as meaningless as it probably is to you, that I will never do such a thing again."

Lea took a shuddering breath and looked at him. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't quite believe you."

"I know; you've made that very clear over the past few days, and I understand."

"Then why are you being such an asshole?"

"I said 'I understand.' I didn't say that I would let you walk all over me because of it. No Keyblade Master will allow an apprentice to mouth off as you have, and keeping a lid on you is the best way to make sure you actually pay attention to what I'm teaching you."

"Are you sure about that?"

"If I hadn't been strict with you earlier, would you have done the laps around the cabin without me to keep an eye on you?"

Lea opened his mouth and then shut it."Shit. No, I wouldn't have."

"Well, there you go." Xehanort stood up and went to stir the stew again.

Lea looked around the small cabin, noting that it was full dark outside. "Where are we exactly? Won't someone see the lights and come check this place out?"

"This world is abandoned." Xehanort said from the fireplace. "Heartless overran it about 30 years ago, give or take a couple of years. A handful of the residents escaped, but the rest were taken by the Heartless. You and I are the only living humans here."

Lea whipped his head around to stare at him. "What the hell happened here? I thought the Heartless invasion didn't start until Radiant Garden fell."

Xehanort sat back down, with the scent of the cooking stew clinging to his clothes and hair. "This world, from what I was told, was once a bastion of human greed and misery. Residents of it were either fabulously wealthy or completely poverty stricken. There was no middle class, or even something that could be considered lower class. The poorest families on Radiant Garden are miles above what the poor here had to endure. The greed, selfishness, and misery called to the Heartless like a beacon, and over time, their numbers gradually increased, until there was no one left.

"Master Limahl sealed the world's keyhole, but with no way to change the peoples' attitudes, there was nothing he could do to stop the invasion."

"What's to stop the Heartless from getting us then?"

"Wards. They're set up around the clearing, and the Heartless cannot cross them. I'm sure that you felt them when we passed through them. Master Limahl emplaced them years ago, and they have slowly gained strength over time whenever someone magical is in the cabin."  
"So we're powering them up simply by being in here?"

Xehanort nodded. "Mhmm. Casting magic within the circle also helps, as they will capture some of it and use it to strengthen themselves."

"So like the Land of Departure then."

"Not quite."

"What do you mean?"

"I did considerable damage to that world, and then Master Aqua reshaped it. The wards were severely damaged by my actions, and then torn apart by hers. They are back, but they are much, much weaker than they had been. It will take them centuries to regain what they have lost."

"So the Council...?"

"Could waltz right on in if they wanted to. It is only the wards' reputation that is stopping them."

"Does Aqua know?"

"I am sure that _Master_ Aqua knows. After all, she is the one connected to them, and no doubt she's also figured out how Master Eraqus always knew when she and Terra were up to something that they shouldn't have been."

Lea scratched the back of his head. "Wait, so you're saying that she could use the wards to tell where other people are and what they are doing?"

"Not what they are doing, but where they are yes. So if someone is in an unexpected place or somewhere where they're not supposed to be, then you can safely assume that they are up to no good. It certainly got Eraqus and me caught a time or two." Xehanort smiled. "I still remember the letter that I received when Master Limahl gave over control of the wards to Eraqus. It basically consisted of 'It was the damned wards!' and him grumbling about it."

Lea chuckled and then paused. "Could you do the same with the wards here, tell where I am, I mean?"

Xehanort gave him a smug smile. "Yes. They let me know that you were doing what I had told you earlier, and if you try to leave, I will know the instant you cross the ward line."

"Seriously!"

"Seriously. Now don't take it personally, Lea. It's just a side function of the wards keeping us safe here, and they were standing long before you were born. This is one of many little safe houses that I have scattered across the worlds. This one is the only one on an uninhabited world and no one knows of it besides the two of us." Xehanort's expression grew serious. "If we ever get separated, and you need a place to hide, come here and wait. As soon as I can, I will come here to find you. Depending on what's going on, it might take me a while, but I will come back here if it's at all possible."

"Do you think that...?"

"That something could happen, causing us to get separated? Absolutely. It is a good possibility. The Council has been pursuing me in one way or another for years, and once they learn that I've taken you as my apprentice, they will come after you as well, especially since you are nowhere near skilled enough to fend them off."

"And you are?" Lea couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

Xehanort gave him a look of disapproval but didn't comment on it. "With regards to Crysa and Aya, yes. I haven't met the three lowest members yet, and Beldinas and Shini have kept their distance from me. If my information about Shini is accurate, then I could probably take him down by forcing him into a purely magical duel. Beldinas is the one I really can't say for sure. He is powerful enough that Master Limahl, who had admitted to me that not only was I stronger than him but that I was not done gaining in power, warned me to keep away from him at all costs. Until I know otherwise, I will consider him a dangerous threat."

Xehanort stood up from the table and moved over to the fireplace again. He tossed the mushrooms and diced celery into the stew and gave it all a good stir.

"You said this has something to do with your keyblade?" Lea asked after a moment.

Xehanort added another small log to the fire and nodded. "It does."

"Why? What's so important about it?"

Xehanort didn't answer right away. He straightened and stood in front of the fireplace for a few minutes, looking into the bright yellow flames. Lea opened his mouth to repeat the question, but he paused at the faraway look in Xehanort's eyes and closed his mouth.

"I bonded with No Name when I was fourteen." Xehanort finally said. "I honestly believe that Master did not know the danger I had put myself in by doing so, at least not then." He finally moved away from the fireplace and returned to his chair at the table. "Some keyblades, like yours, Sora's, or Master Riku's, are young, newly born from your heart. Others though, are old, ancient even, and are handed down from master to apprentice through the centuries. Master's Defender, which is wielded by Master Aqua, is one such keyblade. She inherited it from Master Eraqus, who inherited it from Master Limahl, who inherited it from Master Alexia, who inherited it from Master Skylar, and so on. Master's Defender is as old as the Land of Departure itself and is critical in the world's defense."

"Which is how _Master_ Aqua was able to reshape the world."

"Twice. The first was turning into Castle Oblivion, and the second was turning it back to the Land of Departure."

"So what does this have to do with No Name?"

"No Name is even older. The oldest surviving keyblade in the worlds."

"Even older than the ones at the Keyblade Graveyard?"

"Yes, that is correct. Those fallen keys were left where they fell after their wielders died during the Keyblade War. Master Luxu stayed away from the fighting and merely watched, which is how he survived to hand it down."

"So how did you end up with it?"

"It was handed down, master to apprentice as I mentioned earlier, until about a century and a half or so ago, when its last master, Master Iselotte, died suddenly. She had been a Seeker, as had her own master, who had handed it down to her. She had no apprentices when she died, and she died on the Land of Departure. The then Master of the Castle, Master Liam, knew full well just what No Name was, and he mounted it above the library fireplace, where it stayed for 103 years."

"Until you came along."

"Until I came along."

"So what all does this have to do with the Council?"

"The Council wants No Name. Why? I do not know, but the keyblade was thought lost for centuries and only resurfaced at Master Iselotte's death. I'm certain the Council knew where it was after that, but of course they couldn't reach it behind the wards, which would have stopped them if they had tried to come in with ill intent."

"Why didn't they just ask for it?"

Xehanort shrugged. "I'm going to assume that they did, and they were refused. A keyblade that is not bonded to you will never work. You won't be able to channel magic through it or use it to unlock things. That's if you can even carry it. Right after I bonded with No Name, Eraqus held it, and he said it was very heavy for him, too heavy to have been usable in battle.

"Perhaps now they believe that they can force me to do as they want. It is for that reason that no one, outside of you, knows that my Lord Ansem and I have been in contact, or that he has forgiven me. If the Council were to learn that information, they could use him as a hostage against me. It's better for them, and safer for him, to believe that I've fallen so far that I no longer care what happens to him."

Xehanort looked at Lea. "For that reason, I am also keeping it as quiet as possible that you are with me. Papa is spreading a rumor that you left on your own to search for Isa after he told you that he could not help you. Hopefully, it will be believed, and then we only have to worry about the two of us not being spotted together outside of Meadowseele. Lumaria has commanded his people to never admit that you were there, and since he phrased it as a request from me, I don't think we'll have to worry about that."

Xehanort stood up from the table and went back to the fireplace. He gave the stew a stir, tasted it, and then swung the hook out completely away from the fire. "The stew is done."

**OOOOOO**

The two of them ate in silence, with only the crackling of the slowly dying fire and the clinking of spoons against the stoneware bowls as accompaniment for their thoughts. Lea kept his eyes on his food, thinking about everything that Xehanort had told him, while Xehanort kept looking off into space, a faraway look in his eyes.

The stew was good, and Lea ate two bowls of it, and drank the water that Xehanort summoned for him. It was all they had to drink, but Lea wasn't about to complain. They washed up in silence, and it was then that Xehanort said they should try to sleep, to set their internal clocks to the world's time.

"We're going to be here for several days." he said as the lamps dimmed down to almost nothing. "I have a great deal to teach you as quickly as possible before we leave here."

"You mean, we aren't going to search for Isa?" Lea asked as he sat up on the bed he had marked as his and stared at Xehanort.

Xehanort pulled his boots off and put them down by the chest at the foot of his own bed. "Of course we are, but not right _now_. You know next to nothing, and you will only be a burden that I have to protect if we run into trouble out there. I at least want you to be able to consistently block and evade and maybe cast healing magic before we leave."

"But Isa could be anywhere! What's the stop them from dragging him off to some place that we'll never find him?"

Xehanort laid back with his head on his pillow with his arms under his head and closed his eyes. "I can track him, because of the X that Xemnas carved into his face years ago."

"The Mark of the Recusant." Lea whispered as he felt his heart chill. "Why didn't I ever think of that?"

"Ah, you know of it."

"Sora told us about it after..." Lea squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head. "Why did you do that to him?"

"You know the reasons why, Lea."

"Yeah, but I don't understand them. Why would you ever want to start another Keyblade War? What purpose would that serve?"

He heard Xehanort sit up, and he turned back to face him and opened his eyes.

"You want to know why?" Xehanort asked. "Fine then, I will tell you. I had always been curious about the Keyblade War, and so little is known about it. We knew how it had gotten started, and we know that the Council of the Keys formed shortly after it was over, but that is all. How the shattered worlds survived, how the Darkness was pushed back, how the Light continued, all of that was unknown to us. I wanted to know. How could a world, how could humans survive after an entire planet was shattered into countless pieces? I wanted to know, but when I was young, I knew there was no way to know without finding some old, forgotten records written by the survivors. The chances of that were practically zero, so the only way to learn would be to watch it myself in some way.

"But how could I do that? The war had happened thousands of years ago, long enough for the stories of it to pass into legend, then myth, and then be forgotten entirely. Very few people know the war ever happened outside of the keyblade wielders."

Lea cross his arms over his chest and glared. "So you decided to find out first hand."

"No, I didn't. I was just a teenaged boy then, Lea. I was simply curious, but nothing more. Even after I left home and developed dark leanings, I was careful. I didn't want to fall. I didn't want to be corrupted. Master warned me to be careful and said he couldn't bear it if anything happened to me."

"And look what happened anyway."

Now it was Xehanort's turn to glare, and Lea found himself locked into staring at Xehanort's eyes, unable to look away. The room suddenly seemed much hotter, and sweat broke out onto his forehead before Xehanort turned away. The temperature seemed to take a sudden plunge, and Lea shivered as cold air brushed against the sweat on his face.

"I held on for quite a while." Xehanort said in a voice that was just above a whisper. He kept his gaze on the door across from the beds. "I did not want to disappoint or upset Master Limahl, so I was careful. Yes, I had dark leanings, which Eraqus disapproved of, but I was not the complete monster that I would one day become. It wasn't until Master died that I fell, and even that was a slow process. It still took a number of years after that for what was left of me to be completely consumed. When you are that corrupted, Lea, you no longer care who may be hurt by your words and actions. It is only your wishes and desires that are important."

Xehanort abruptly stood up and made for the door as the lamps went out completely, plunging the room into almost complete darkness. "Go to sleep. I will return later."

And then he was gone, out the door, which banged shut loud enough to make Lea jump. He stared at the door for a long moment, and then he curled up in the middle of the bed, staring at the door.

**OOOOOO**

Lea didn't sleep at first.

It was difficult to with the feel of Darkness flickering over his skin, even with the wards. He couldn't see or hear anything, but he could sense it, and he sat huddled on the bed, hugging his knees and watching out the window. He didn't know what Xehanort was doing, and he realized quickly that he probably didn't want to know.

There was nothing to see out any of the windows. Full night had descended before they'd eaten, and the forest surrounded the clearing was draped in total shadow. If the world had a moon, it was not out, so he had only the faint glow of the other worlds to see by. Was Xehanort even going to come back? He had said he was but...

Did Lea want him to?

Lea shuddered and hugged his knees tighter as Darkness flared up for a brief moment, which made his skin crawl. The man was clearly pissed about something, likely Lea's own comments, and Lea wasn't looking forward to him coming back after that. So he sat up in bed, watched the door, and waited with a racing heart and bated breath, intending to wait as long as necessary.

He yawned, blinked, and rubbed at his eyes. He'd had a physically demanding day, and he was still aching from it. Nature's call forced him to get up and go outside in search of a place to relieve himself, and the cold air seemed to slap him awake briefly. He stood in the yard and looked off in the direction that he could sense the Darkness, but there was still nothing that he could see.

Once back inside the relative warmth of the cabin, he felt the effects of the cold air wearing off, and he stretched out on his bed, arms behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. His day finally overcame his nerves then, and he was asleep within a few seconds.

**OOOOOO**

A voice touched his ears, followed by several mumbles words. Lea shifted as they dragged him from the depths of sleep, and he huddled down further into the blankets, and... wait, blankets?

He cracked his eyes open and raised his head. He was covered by two heavy wool blankets, and he stared at them for a moment before more mumbling made him turn his head and look to his right.

Xehanort was in the other bed, still, his eyes closed, and his body relaxed.

"M'sorry," he mumbled, "Don't hate me."

Lea blinked at him. What was he...?

"Didn't mean for it to happen."

Was this some stunt to try and gain sympathy points?

"Please..."

Lea turned over onto his left side, facing the fireplace. "Cut it out, Xeh-xeh. It won't work."

"It's not my fault. I didn't do it."

"Oh for the love of-!" Lea growled as he got up, stuffed his feet into his boots (He hadn't taken them off, had he?) He threw the door open and went outside to relieve himself. When he came back in a minute later, Xehanort was quiet, and Lea kept one eye on him as he got back into bed. Xehanort didn't move or make another sound, and Lea went back to sleep without any further interruptions.


	4. Games Without Frontiers

_Dear Isa,_

_I'm not even sure where to start here._

_Yesterday was... Yesterday was just weird. There's just no other word for it. First Xehanort drags me out here to this desolate place, (After he scared the shit out of me when I inadvertently insulted his old master – I never want him to look at me that way ever again. I thought for damned sure he was going to kill me with a look.) and it's in total ruin. Except for the little cabin we're staying in, I couldn't see any intact buildings as we flew in._

_Did I mention that it's also infested with Heartless?_

_The damned things are everywhere. I couldn't see them through the trees, but I sure as hell could sense them. The only things stopping them from getting us is a set of wards around the cabin that Master Limahl put up years ago. Why he did that is something that Norty hasn't bothered to explain, and that's if he even knows._

_He certainly seems to know a lot of other things though. I learned more about the Council of the Keys in a few minutes than I had learned in a couple of years from Yen Sid and the others. I wonder why no one really bothered to explain any of this to me. Of course, Xehanort could be lying about it all too, and I would have no way of knowing. Part of me would like to ask Mickey or Yen Sid if it's all true, but then they would want to know where I heard all of this, and that would be an awkward conversation._

_So yeah, right after we got here, Xehanort hauled me outside and proceeded to swing his keyblade at me a lot. I had to either block the swings or try and evade them, but good gods, that man moves fast. I didn't know it was possible for someone to move like that. He makes Larxene look like she'd been wading through waist deep mud with the way he moves. He never actually hit me with his keyblade though. He always stopped the swing just a hair away from me._

_And he can cook too! Hey, don't look at me like that. You know I've always appreciated a good meal, and he served up some real nice rabbit stew. He said he'll teach me to cook as well, since I might need that skill one day. Anyway, while it was cooking, he explained what he knew about the Council and how they were after his keyblade, No Name. For what, he didn't know, but he also said the Council wants to get their hands on the Land of Departure for some reason._

_The weird part comes in when I realized I was actually interested in what he had to say. If Xemnas had been half as good at storytelling, we might have all paid attention at meetings. I swear that he talked sometimes just to hear the sound of his own voice and dragged the rest of us along for it. Maybe I ought to ask Norty about it._

_Eh, maybe not. I asked him a lot of questions last night, and he answered most easily, but there were a couple though... I asked him about Ventus, and the damned lights in the room got dim for a moment. It was the creepiest damned thing ever. I never saw Xemnas do anything like that, so I hadn't been expecting it at all. And then later, when I snarked off to him, it was... He glared at me, and I couldn't look away! It was like something had a hold of my head and wouldn't let me turn it. And then I suddenly felt like I was standing out in the middle of the desert at high noon instead of a little cabin on a world in the middle of fall, and then he just said he'd be back, and then he went out the door._

_I didn't see him come back. I thought for damned sure he was going to put the hurt on me for pissing him off, so I tried to stay awake for when he came back, but I ended up falling asleep anyway. I woke up later though, because he was back, lying in his own bed, and mumbling things. I told him to knock it off, because c'mon, what a better way to try and sucker someone into trusting you than playing the sympathy card, but he didn't answer me. I went outside (and it was cold out there!) to take a leak, and when I came back, he was quiet._

_He was already up when I finally woke up in the late morning. He's making breakfast now, and he looks like hell. Makes me wonder just how late he was out last night. He hasn't said a word to me, not even when I retrieved this book from my pack to write you a letter. I'm almost afraid to find out what he's got planned for me today._

_Time to pay the piper, as it were, I guess._

_Later,  
_ _Lea_

Lea closed the book and glanced up at Xehanort, who was sitting down in front of the fireplace, minding a skillet with sizzling eggs and slices of ham. Nearby, the pot that last night's stew had been cooked in was sitting on a bed of coals, with its lid on, and more coals piled on top. The smell of baking biscuits was filling the cabin, along with the bacon and ham.

Xehanort was staring with a vacant expression into the fire, and his face was pale, with dark bags under his eyes. If it had been anyone else, Lea would have been concerned, and he would have been asking what was wrong. But this was Xehanort, and Lea shoved down any hint of worry as he put the book back into his pack. He put his boots and coat on and went outside to take care of things. When he came back in a few minutes later, the eggs and ham had been plated up and were on the table, while Xehanort was using a long metal rod with a hook at the end to lift the coal covered lid off the pot to check on the biscuits. He then set the lid aside and used the hook to snag the pot by one of its handles and drag it off of the coals, before he used a knife to dig out the biscuits.

Breakfast was eaten in silence. Xehanort had nothing to say, and Lea wasn't too keen on trying to start a conversation. The washing up that followed was equally quiet, and once everything had been put away, Xehanort finally spoke.

"Come outside." He then went out the door himself. Lea took a look at the frost coating the windows, shivered, and made sure to zip his coat up all the way before he stepped out.

Outside, his breath puffed out in front of him as a weak sun shone down on the clearing. The frosted grass crunched under his boots as he walked out to meet Xehanort, who was standing halfway between the cabin and the wards.

"We're going to work on magic to start with."

Lea gave him a strange look. "I already know magic."

"No, you know how to use the fire that you gained after breaking the laws of the universe. There is so much more to it than that, and you need to know how to at least heal yourself before we leave."

"Fire's good."

"It's also dangerous when battling indoors, unless you want to set the structure around you on fire, with you in it?"

Lea thought about that for a second. "No, I guess that would be bad."

"It would indeed. Lucky for you, since you already know how to call up fire, then you know the basics of how to call up the other elements as well. The biggest difficulty you will face is breaking yourself of the habit of using fire exclusively."

Xehanort held out his hand, palm up, and a small flame appeared, hovering just above the surface of his glove. He then squeezed his hand into a fist and then reopened it. The flame was gone, and in its place as an ice crystal, in the shape of the flame that had been there previously. The crystal hovered there for a moment, and then it cracked and started to break up. The ice crumbled away, and Lea felt his jaw drop when the flame from before seemed to almost be encased within the crumbling ice.

"How did you do that?" he asked in a hushed voice once the ice was gone, leaving the small flame in its place.

"Every magic user, no matter how they acquired the magic to begin with, has a natural affinity to at least one element. You are fire. Even, even before he became Vexen, had a talent for ice. Becoming a Nobody simply boosted his power significantly. I have a dual affinity for water and fire. Ice falls under that as well, since ice is merely frozen water. Master Eraqus was -" Xehanort's voice trembled just the slightest bit. "a dual fire and light elemental, while Master Aqua is water. Sometimes the definition of "element" can be stretched a bit, as one would have a hard time calling the moon an element, yet Saïx was clearly influenced by it.

"Sometimes the affinity seems to be completely random. No one knows how Even came by his ice affinity, for example, but in others the reasons are clear. Before he lost his heart, the castle gardens were Lumaria's only escape and refuge, so it makes perfect sense for Marluxia to have had such an affinity."

"What about you, where did yours come from then?"

"My ancestry."

"What, do you have fire and water users in your family history?"

Xehanort flicked his eyes up at the pale sun that was shining down on them through a thin sheen of clouds. "You could say that, yes." He squeezed his hand into a fist again, and the little flame vanished.

Lea realized something then. "Wait. Your affinity, that's how you snuffed out my fire on Meadowseele."

Xehanort smirked. "Indeed it was. My fire affinity is stronger than yours, and my magic levels are even higher still. In a battle of magic against magic, yours lost to mine and was snuffed."

"Ugh, damn it, that sucks!"

Xehanort's smirked widened for a moment, before it relaxed into a more serious expression. "Be at ease about it, Lea. I only did that then to get you to listen and to prevent you from starting a forest fire. I won't be in the habit of suppressing your magic unless it's critically important.

"Anyway, the difficulty lies in learning to summon and control elements that you do not have an affinity for." Xehanort abruptly spun around and pointed at a tree on the other side of the ward line. Lightning arched from his fingers, streamed across the wide gap, and impacted the tree trunk with a loud, sharp _boom!_ that echoed off of the other trees and rattled the windows of the cabin. There was a brief pause, and then the tree swayed, tilted, and fell over, its trunk broken clean in two.

Lea simply stared, and Xehanort dropped his hand and turned to face him. "Using a keyblade to channel magic can make things easier, but it's always good to learn to channel without it. For the more magically inclined, like myself, Master Yen Sid, and Master Aqua, it is easy. For those less so, like Terra, casting without a keyblade is extremely difficult, or may even be impossible. All keyblade wielders can use magic, but not all of us are good at it." He gave Lea a sardonic smile. "Now, let's find out where you are in that spectrum."

Lea felt his heart sink. "I don't think I'm going to enjoy this."

"Probably not. Learning magic is always difficult. It took me months to get so much as a spark, and Eraqus had similar problems. Unlearning old habits is even more difficult, all the more reason to get started."

"So where do I start?" Lea asked with a glum expression.

"Not the way you learned of your fire affinity, that is for certain."

Lea glared at Xehanort. "I only did that once!"

"And you completely gutted the interior of the room that you and Saïx were sleeping in."

"I never heard the end of it from Xigbar either."

"He thought it was hilarious actually. His exact words were 'We have a firebrand on our hands!'" Xehanort sighed. "It took him weeks to shut up about it." He shook his head. "But the best way to go about this is to think of how it feels when you call your fire. Close your eyes."

Lea merely looked at him, and Xehanort arched an eyebrow. "What? Do I have something on my face? Close your eyes, Lea."

"You're acting almost... normal again. It's weird."

"Yes, I do that a lot nowadays, or so I've been told. Now, for the last time, close your eyes."

Lea huffed. "Fine." He closed his eyes and shivered at the feel of the Heartless watching.

Xehanort somehow knew the reasons for the shiver. "They cannot cross the ward line, Lea. We are safe here."

"So you say."

"Yes, because Master Limahl knew what he was doing. Since your intention was not to insult him, I will refrain from slapping the back of your head for it – _this_ time."

"Gee, how generous of you."

"Focus, Lea. The more you delay, the longer it will take us to actually start tracking Isa down."

"Okay, I get it. What do I do now?"

"Prepare to cast your fire, but do not actually do so. Just pull it up, and have it at the ready."

"Alright, alright."

He felt the magic coursing through him as he called to it, racing like liquid fire through his body, waiting to be released to burn everything in sight. He halted it before it could go, held it back, and waited. Strangely enough, the magic almost seemed to be... annoyed with him at being held back, but Xehanort interrupted him before he could think on it.

"You command the magic, not the other way around. Order it to do as you wish, bend it to your will, while thinking strongly of what you want it to do. When you're ready, I want you to cast lightning at the treeline."

"But, I can't use -"

"You can, and you will. This is your magic, and it has to obey you. Now cast."

"But I don't know how!"

"I just told you how, Lea. Now cast!"

Lea screwed up his face, pictured lightning like Xehanort's flying from his hands, and let the magic loose. The magic rushed through him, and he felt a tingling through his fingers, followed by a crackling sound. His eyes flew open in excitement – had he done it? - but the magic fizzled out of existence with his concentration broken.

"Try again, Lea." Xehanort said in a calm voice. "Try not to look like someone just kicked you in the crotch this time."

Lea glared at him, to which Xehanort only looked back at him with a serene expression.

"Try again. You were very close."

Lea looked away and closed his eyes again. He called the magic, it surged through him, he heard the crackle of electricity, but there was no boom, like he had heard when Xehanort had cast. He opened his eyes to see the trees across the way not even smoking.

"Don't look so disappointed." Xehanort said with a small smile. "You successfully cast Thunder."

"But it didn't hit anything."

"Of course it didn't. It's only the tier one spell, and it's an element that you're unfamiliar with. Give it time and practice, and you'll get better at it."

"But we don't have time. _Isa_ doesn't have time."

"We are not rushing into this, Lea. I need you to at least have some idea of what you're doing before we leave this world." Xehanort took a step back. "Now, cast it again."

**OOOOOO**

Hours later, Lea dropped bonelessly into a chair. He kicked his boots off and rubbed at his aching feet before the cold air of the room made him put them back on. His hands shook as he did so, and his shirt stuck to his back with sweat. Once his boots were back on, he crossed his arms on the table and laid his head down on them. Who knew magic could be so hard? His head ached as he closed his eyes. He would just sit here for a moment, and then he'd relight the fireplace like Xehanort had told him to. Just a moment...

"Lea,"

A hand came down on his shoulder, and he bolted upright as his eyes flew open. He looked up to see Xehanort looking down at him, but the amusement he expected to see was not there.

"Are you all right?" Xehanort asked, and the urgent tone in his voice made him seem... concerned? Was Xehanort actually capable of that?

"Lea, are you all right?" Xehanort asked again, and Lea blinked and shook his head to clear the cobwebs.

"I'm fine." he said as he shrugged Xehanort's hand off. "Just tired." Xehanort's hand reached down and pushed his head up and back to look him in the eye. "Hey!"

"You're more than just tired. You're magically exhausted." Xehanort reached into a pocket and fished out a small glass vial. "Drink this; it will help."

Lea reached up with a shaking hand and tried to grab the vial, but his fingers didn't feel like cooperating, and he dropped it. The sound of the glass shattering on the floor sounded explosively loud to him, and he winced.

"Here," Xehanort fished out another vial. He didn't hand this one off, instead he popped the cork off, and then tilted Lea's head back again and held it to his mouth. "Open up."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, unless you would _like_ to lie in bed the rest of the day, feeling sicker than a dog?"

"Fine," Lea opened his mouth, and Xehanort tipped the contents of the vial in. Whatever it was, it had no real taste, but it tingled all the way down into his stomach.

"Now go lie down." Xehanort told him. "Have a nap while I make lunch."

"Okay," Lea stood up from the table, but the room spun, and his legs wobbled under him. Xehanort caught him by the arm and half carried him over to the bed. Lea found his eyes closing before he even made it the short distance to the bed, and he was dead to the world by the time his head made contact with the pillow.

**OOOOOO**

It was Xehanort's voice, calling for him to wake up, that roused him later.

"I'm still tired." Lea grumbled as he blinked his eyes open. The scent of something delicious touched his nose then, and his stomach growled in response.

"You'll feel much better after you've eaten. Now, get up."

Lea shifted under the blanket – wait, blanket? He raised his head and blinked down at the blanket that was covering him. He hadn't covered up...

"Did you cover me up?" he asked.

"I did." Xehanort replied from the direction of the table. "Now get up. You have to eat to finish recharging."

He sat up and scratched at his head. "I've never had that happen before."

"That was my fault: I pushed you too hard. I assure you that it won't happen again. Now get up. We have more work to do later."

Lea sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Do I have to?"

"The longer you procrastinate, the longer it will take us to find Isa."

"Damn it, fine." Lea stood up and made his way on legs that still wobbled a little to the table, where he nearly fell into the chair.

"You'll feel better once you've got some food in you." Xehanort added, pushing a plate of steak and potatoes over to him.

Lea picked up his fork and poked at the still sizzling meat. "Are there cows here?"

"There are, feral descendants of domesticated cattle, but I had no desire to deal with the bulls and their horns while trying to bring down a cow, so we're eating deer today. I have more meat packed away for later."

Lea cut off a piece of the meat and ate it. "So when are you going to teach me how to hunt and all of that."

"Not until we're off of this world. There are too many Heartless here to risk it."

"C'mon, I know how to handle them."

"No, you don't." Xehanort looked up at him. "You have a heart, and you have a keyblade. The Heartless will never stop trying to get to you now, when before they would have been content to ignore you until you got too close or attacked first. This world is too dangerous for you until you learn how to handle yourself better."

"Didn't you say that you and Eraqus had your Mark of Mastery exam here?"

"That's _Master_ Eraqus, Lea, and yes, we did – when we were at the age of 20, and we had years of experience with keyblades and magic. Despite all of that, Master Limahl still hovered nearby during our entire exam, ready to intervene if we got in over our heads. And let's not forget, we just barely made it within the time limit that he had set."

Lea took a bite of the roasted potatoes and spent a moment trying to identify the spices, before he asked his next question.

"So what are you going to have me work on later?"

"Your keyblade." Xehanort said shortly as he focused on his own meal. "By the time we eat and wash up, you should be feeling well enough to work."

"And if I'm not?"

"Then I will send you back to bed, which will add another day until we can leave here to look for Isa." Xehanort looked at him. "And I will know if you are faking it, so don't even try."

Lea grumbled under his breath as Xehanort went back to eating, and he focused his attention on his own meal.

Once they had eaten and washed up, Lea plodded outside after Xehanort, and he shivered when the cold air outside brushed across his face.

"I swear it's colder every time I step outside." he grumbled.

"Winter is closing in." Xehanort said in response. "This world has very harsh winters and mild summers. The first snow should arrive within a week or two, and within a month of that, it will be up to your waist."

"Who would want to live here?"

"People who had no way off of the world and so had no choice but to stay. A few did escape without the aid of any Keyblade Master, though to this day, no one knows how they managed it."

"Really? Who?" They stopped several feet away from the cabin.

"One of Master Limahl's brothers, actually." Xehanort replied as he turned to face Lea and summoned his keyblade, which prompted Lea to do the same. "Master spotted him and his wife in Radiant Garden one day, living it up."

"And he didn't approach them or anything? Why not? Wasn't he happy to see him?"

Xehanort shook his head. "Master Limahl had been estranged from his parents and brothers for years, so much so that he didn't count them as family. He made note of them and made sure to avoid them from then on." He raised his keyblade. "Enough of that subject, however. You're out here to learn, not chat, so let's get started."

"What are we doing then?"

"The same as yesterday." Xehanort raised his keyblade. "Now, defend yourself."

**OOOOOO**

Lea groaned quietly as he rolled over in bed. His overworked muscles protested the movement, and he wondered again what the hell he was doing. Traveling with Xehanort, accepting training from him, eating food that he cooked. Was he out of his mind?

"It's for Isa." he whispered in the silence of the room, which was dimly lit by the dying fire in the fireplace. "I have to find him, no matter what I have to do, even if it means eating Xehanort's cooking."

"I didn't hear you complaining about it earlier." Xehanort said from the other bed, and Lea froze at being overheard. "If I remember correctly, you had seconds, so it couldn't have been too horrible."

Lea felt like pulling the blankets over his head, but he quashed that. "You said you're going to teach me to cook, right?"

"I will, yes. Why? Worried that I'm planning to poison you?"

Lea growled quietly. "Maybe."

Xehanort made a quiet "Heh," and then he was silent for a moment. "If you feel that you can handle having yet another lesson on top of the other two, then we can start that tomorrow. Hunting and gathering, however, will still wait until we are off of this world."

"Is that all I'm going to be doing? Learning how to throw magic and swing a keyblade?"

"And cooking, since you asked."

"And cooking. But, seriously, is that all?"

"For now. Navigation by the worlds will come later, and wilderness survival and other useful skills will get added once we're away from here. Keyblade swinging, as you put it, and magic are all one needs to learn to attain mastery, but it is so much involved than it sounds. As I told you before, learning to wield a keyblade is normally done over the course of several years, but we do not have time for that now."

"So you're fast tracking me."

"You could say that. I need you to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible, if only to stop you from being a dangerous liability later."

"Oh come on! I'm not helpless or anything!"

"Mind your tone." Xehanort hissed. "And yes, you are. You have nothing on the Council in terms of skill, and you had better believe that they know everything there is to know about you, including your skill level and magic strength. You're not fighting Heartless this time, who care only for their next heart. You are dealing with humans: powerful, intelligent humans who won't hesitate to take you down if you get in their way."

Lea huffed and flopped over onto his back. He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling as the last light from the fire faded. "Why did they take Isa? Why him and not any of the others?"

"My personal belief is that he was the easiest to get a hold of. Isa has no free will of his own left, so he will only move if I tell him to." Lea winced, and his heart twisted, but Xehanort ignored his reaction and continued. "I can only assume in that short span of time when I was not able to tell Isa to get up and leave, they grabbed him."

"How can you talk about this like... like it's nothing?" Lea clenched his hands into fists for a moment. "You make it sound like Isa's just an... an... _object_ , a piece of furniture."

He saw Xehanort sit up out of the corner of his eye. "How else would you like me to speak of him?"

"Maybe as a person? As my best friend? As someone other than one of your damned vessels! He's not a thing! And why in the hell didn't you tell him to leave! You could have, couldn't you!"

Xehanort sighed. "No, I couldn't." he said, and Lea stilled at how quiet his voice had become. "I couldn't tell him anything. I was there in that castle that day, too, seated in the chair next to Xemnas. While the old man version of me was carrying on about returning as a complete person – which was a lie, as he had come from a time _before_ the possession of Terra had taken place – he kept me controlled and contained. I couldn't have moved if I had wanted to. Perhaps he realized that his most future self was having seconds thoughts? We share a heart, so it is a possibility, but the point is that I could do nothing. I was as firmly under his control as Isa was. It wasn't until we returned to our own points and places that I was able to have independent thoughts once more, and by then, the Council had already snatched Isa and taken him."

Lea chose to ignore that part for the moment. "This whole time travel thing is mind melting."

"It is, and I am the one living through it. I have no idea what convinced me that it was a good idea."

"I can't believe your youngest self went along with it. Really, what kind of kid agrees to help shatter someone's heart?"

"I can." Xehanort said, his voice suddenly quiet. "And he – _I_ had my reasons."

The cabin went silent then, and Lea propped himself up on his elbow to look over at Xehanort, who was lying down and staring at the ceiling. He opened his mouth to ask about that last statement, but Xehanort spoke first.

"Go back to sleep, Lea." he said, and then he turned over onto his right side so he was facing away from Lea. Lea stared at him for a moment, before he lowered himself back down, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep.

**OOOOOO**

The next few days were more of the same: get up early, have breakfast, spend four or five hours dealing with magic, have lunch, and then spend four more hours swinging a keyblade around, followed by dinner, and then falling into bed for the night. Xehanort had him assist with cooking their meals, and Lea was surprised to learn just how many little things went into making food. His mother had made it look so easy all those years ago.

The weather continued to cool, and true to Xehanort's word, the first snow arrived five days after they had come to stay in the little cabin. Unfortunately for Lea, that was also the day that Xehanort started making him work on healing magic, something that he had never used before and knew nothing about.

"It is the same as everything else you've done so far." Xehanort explained from within the depths of his coat hood as his breath puffed out in front of him. "Call up your magic and command it to heal you."

Yeah, Lea thought, sure. It's so simple.

Except it wasn't.

No matter how much he concentrated or how much he willed it to happen, healing magic stubbornly refused to come to him. It didn't matter what he did: screwed up his face, tensed his muscles, even stamped his feet, his magic remained stuck in place within him, almost as though it was confused about what he wanted it to do.

He stood outside in the cold and snow for three hours and had nothing to show for it when Xehanort allowed him to come back inside for lunch. He slumped down at the table and massaged his aching head as Xehanort put a bowl of venison stew with hot, crusty bread on the side, down in front of him. A second later, the green magic of a healing spell washed over him, relieving the tension in his neck and shoulders and vanishing the headache.

"How much longer are we going to be here?" Lea asked as Xehanort sat down on the other side of the table with his own bread and stew.

"Until you master healing magic." Xehanort blew across a spoonful of the soup and then ate it.

Lea sat up straight and looked at him. "That might take a while."

"Consider it incentive then."

"Why in the hell didn't you have me work on that first?"

"Because if you think it's difficult now, imagine how it would be without learning to call up other magic first."

"But this is going to take forever, and I want to start looking for Isa!"

Xehanort glared at him. "Lower your voice; you do not speak to me that way."

Lea stood up, and the sound of his chair skidding back across the floor sounded too loud in the small room. "I'll speak to you however I damned well please." he snarled. "You drag me out here, and for what? We were supposed to go look for Isa, and instead I'm stuck on this little rut of a world with only you for company!"

"Lea..." Xehanort's voice was low.

Lea put his hands on the table and leaned down over it, and he felt a spike of annoyance when Xehanort merely looked up at him with a bored expression.

"Why in the hell did you drag me out here anyway! Was it to just waste my time, prevent me from finding your vessel?"

"Lea..."

"Didn't want me to interfere with you getting that X-blade, did you? Is this just a way for you to finally do what you couldn't during the days of the Organization? Will I finally leave here with golden eyes?"

"Lea." Xehanort's voice was louder, more firm, but Lea ignored it.

"Why are you wasting my time, _Isa's_ time!"

"Enough!" Xehanort's voice boomed through the small space as he stood up from the table, moving so fast that Lea didn't see the motion. The hair on his arms stood up, and he broke out into a cold sweat as the lights in the room suddenly dimmed.

"Wasting your time, am I?" Xehanort hissed, his golden eyes glowing. "Is that what you think? Well then, let me rectify that!"

A portal opened next to Xehanort, and Lea had just enough time to realize what that meant before he was flung head first into it. He tumbled down in a tangle of limbs and coat down on a familiar floor as the portal closed behind him. He sat up as the room stopped spinning around him, and he heard Ansem say from behind:

"One week, Lea. You lasted one week."

Lea shook his head and started to get to his feet. "Well, no need to sound so disappointed."

"Of course I am. I owe Heir Xehanort munny now."

Lea spun around to stare at Radiant Garden's king, who was sitting calmly behind his desk, piles of paperwork in front of him. "You made a bet with him? About me?"

Ansem nodded. "I did. He insisted that it would take you no more than a week to push him to the limits of his patience, while I claimed that your desire to find Isa would allow you to keep your mouth in check." He frowned. "Now I've lost 200 munny because of you. It appears that you don't want to find Isa as much as you claim."

"I do want to find Isa!" Lea shouted, bristling at the accusation. "It's fucking Xehanort! I can't stand him! Him and his damned insistence on being called by his title! Why in the hell does he deserve that kind of respect? How does he get off on demanding obedience from me after all the shit he's done!" He began to pace about the room. "He destroys the worlds, unleashes the Heartless, ruins so many lives, _takes my best friend from me,_ and now he wants me to be a good little apprentice and swallow his every damned word with a smile!"

"Lea..."

"Seriously, who in the hell does he think he is!"

"Lea."

"I should march right down into town and tell everyone where he is. Yeah, I'm going to do that right now!" Lea turned towards the door and began to walk in that direction.

"Lea Rosso, you will cease this foolish notion at once!"

The command in Ansem's tone made him pause for a second, but then he continued towards the door. "Nope, not gonna happen, Lord Ansem. I want everyone to know where that fucker is so he can pay."

He heard Ansem's chair abruptly scoot back. "I am warning you, Lea. Do not go out that door!"

"I'd like to see you try and stop me." he replied as he reached out for the door handle.

"Gladly." came Xehanort's voice from directly behind him. Lea froze in place for a second, and then he turned to run as he felt Xehanort's magic settle over him like it had that night on Meadowseele. His step slowed and faltered, and he was aware of falling to the floor as Xehanort's magic put him to sleep.

**OOOOOO**

Water was dripping somewhere nearby. The sound of the drops splashing down echoed loudly inside Lea's aching head as he started to come around. He groaned as each drop slammed into his skull like a hammer, and his stomach rolled and heaved. He managed to drag himself over onto his stomach and retched. His head only throbbed harder at the movement, and he groaned as he collapsed to the cold, hard floor beneath him.

Where was he? He opened his eyes, but he could see nothing. The scent of water touched his nose, and behind the dripping, he could just barely hear water flowing somewhere nearby. He groaned again.

The waterway. He was in the castle dungeon. Ansem had thrown him down here? Why? Oh wait. No doubt it was to protect his precious murdering bastard of a son from the painful death he so seriously deserved. Heaven forbid the people of Radiant Garden get justice on the one who betrayed them all in the worst possible way.

Lea's fingers scratched across the rough cut stones of the floor as he carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head pulsed painfully in time with his heartbeat, and the muscles in his neck and shoulders throbbed along with it as he leaned against one of the stone walls that made up what undoubtedly was a cell. The stones were damp to the touch, and the cool humidity of the area brushed across his face and hands as he slumped back, hoping that holding still would ease his headache. He would rest for a bit, and then he would summon his keyblade and get the hell out of there. He then would go to anyone who would listen and trumpet that Lord Ansem was in league with Xehanort.

Lea leaned his head against the wall and waited. As the minutes ticked by, he realized that the cell wasn't in total darkness. Faint light could be seen through a small, barred window in the cell door, and it just barely allowed him to see the outline of the door, and the walls, floor, and ceiling immediately around it. The farthest corners of the cell remained in shadows, and he closed his eyes against it and sighed. It he could see light, he couldn't be too deep into the dungeon, which mean it should be easy to get out once he felt well enough to move around.

He had no idea how long it took for the worst of the throbbing to subside, but when it was down to a bearable level, he raised his hand to summon Proud Flame, so he could unlock the door and slip out.

But nothing happened.

Lea blinked and tried again. Again, Proud Flame did not appear. A third attempt got the same results.

"What the hell?" A fourth attempt also failed. He then reached down for his magic, and he found it there, but when he tried to summon it to burn out the door, it did not materialize. He tried again, focusing on the feeling of the magic surging through him like Xehanort had taught him (Ugh...) but it seemed to slam into some kind of barrier before it could appear.

Lea frowned in confusion as a third attempt resulted in the same feeling of his magic running into an impenetrable wall. He held his hands up in front of his face, and the dim light just barely allowed him to see something on his wrists.

He dragged himself to his feet, wincing as the throbbing of his head and neck returned full force, and he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a few minutes to wait for it to settle. He then stepped carefully towards the door and held his hands and wrists up to the window.

Wide cuffs encircled his wrists, looking very much like the ones he'd seen on Xehanort's wrists days ago. He squinted and titled his head to the side (Which hurt, a lot.) and he was just barely able to see some kind of etching. A quick check confirmed that the cuffs were leather and had no buckle or any other way to take them off.

"They are magic blocking cuffs." Xehanort's voice spoke softly from one of the darkened, back corners of the cell, and Lea spun around to face him. The sudden motion made his head screech in protest, and his stomach heaved again. There was nothing more for him to vomit up, and he dry heaved for a minute or two before he could straighten back out. His head was throbbing as badly as he had when he'd woken up, and he groaned a third time as he slumped down to the floor and clutched his head in his hands. It felt like it wanted to explode at any second.

Xehanort said nothing more as Lea waited for the throbbing to ease again, which seemed to take forever. Time was measured in heartbeats at the migraine clawed at his head and neck, until it finally began to settle down and subside as he held still.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he rasped as he continued to clutch his head in his hands.

"Making sure that you're not dead, for one." Xehanort replied, still speaking very softly. If the area hadn't been nearly silent, Lea knew he wouldn't have been able to hear him well enough to understand him.

"What, not man enough to finish me off?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Can't have me tell everyone that you're here, after all."

"No, and that is precisely why you are down here. If word were to get out about Lord Ansem being in contact with me, it would result in him being slaughtered by a lynch mob. I will not allow anything more to happen to him because of me, Lea, and if that means keeping you down here until everything is settled, then so be it."

"So do you intend to just sit there and babysit me for the rest of our lives."

"I have no need to do that. This part of the dungeon is inaccessible to all by myself and Lord Ansem. No one will find you here, and those cuffs you bear around your wrists will prevent you from escaping."

"So you're just going to leave me here? In the fucking dark?"

Xehanort sighed, and lights on the cell walls suddenly came to life, flaring brightly before settling down to a much dimmer level. Lea flinched back from the sudden brightness and blinked away the spots in his eyes before he took a look around.

Perhaps "cell" wasn't the right word. Except for the barred door and lack of windows, the room looked like any other comfortable furnished room that one might find at a respectable inn. A inviting looking bed, covered in quilts and fluffy pillows, took up one corner of the room. A small table and chair sat next to it. Up by the door was a sink and a toilet, with a large, well stocked bookcase situated opposite to the right of the door. A light dotted each wall roughly in the center, and a lamp was sitting on the table.

Xehanort was seated in the remaining corner, the one furthest from the door, and the lights nearest to him were off, shrouding him in shadow. His black coat seemed to only absorb what little light came his way.

"Still hiding in the darkness, I see." Lea couldn't help but snark as he dragged himself to his feet and made his way to the chair at the table. The glow from the table lamp allowed him to see where he'd vomited on the floor, right next to the rug aside the bed. Why had he been lying on the floor anyway?

"The Darkness has always welcomed me, Lea." Xehanort said with a dry smile. "Centuries ago, my ancestor was cursed to forever wander in darkness, bereft of the light and warmth of the sun. Since then, his descendants have always found comfort and safety in the shadows where Lord Asoth's light cannot reach."

Lea blinked as he slumped down into a chair. He vaguely remembered Sora and Riku saying something about an Asoth, the Destiny Islands' sun god, months ago, but he pushed those thoughts aside.

"So you've seen that I'm not dead," he asked, "so now what are you going to do?"

"Offer you a choice."

Lea rubbed his temples and closed his eyes against the light. As dim as it was, it still seemed too bright to him.

"And what makes you think I give a damn about any choice you might offer?"

"Give me credit, Lea. I am not the fool that you take me for. I am only down here because Lord Ansem wasn't happy about one of your choices and begged me to talk to you about it."

"Say what you came to say then and get the hell out, so I can try and sleep off this headache." He raised his throbbing head and looked at him. "Why in the hell do I have this damned thing anyway?"

"A combination of a deep sleep and you slamming your head against the floor when you fell."

"Why the fuck didn't you heal me then, or do you always leave your apprentices with concussions?"

Xehanort raised an eyebrow. "Quit being so dramatic. You don't have a concussion, and you are no longer my apprentice, if you remember. I threw you out due to your gross disrespect of myself."

"And I suppose you were never disrespectful to your master? Did he chuck you out too?" Lea met Xehanort's gaze, and he was pleased to see something flicker in the man's golden eyes. Score one point for him...

"I was a child, not a grown man, and I never dared speak to him the way you shouted at me." Xehanort stood up and approached him, and Lea nearly flinched back before he caught himself. He schooled his expression into one of boredom and looked up at Xehanort as he came to stand in front of him.

"Here are you choices, Lea. You can stay here in this dungeon, until I have taken care of everything that needs to be dealt with. You will then be released to live out the rest of your life. You will be well fed and cared for while down here, but you will not be able to leave. Your magic and keyblade will remain blocked, and only Lord Ansem and myself can remove the cuffs that are keeping your powers contained."

"And my other option?" Lea said, acting for all the world like none of it mattered to him, even as his heart accelerated at being stuck down there for who knew how long.

"You apologize to me, and I mean that you must truly apologize and mean it. I will then reinstate you as my apprentice, and we will go back to what we had been doing before you mouthed off. This, however, will be your final chance. One more incidence of disrespect from you will result in you living down here, whether you like it or not."

"No third option?"

"No." Xehanort said in clipped tones.

"How long do I have to decide?"

"Until tomorrow morning." Xehanort pulled back the sleeve of his coat to look at his watch. "You have eleven hours. Use them wisely."

Xehanort turned on his heel and walked out of the cell. Lea thought for a brief moment of trying to follow him, but he discarded it quickly. Xehanort would simply catch him and throw him back in. Instead he hauled himself back onto his feet as the cell door shut and moved over to the bed, whereupon he promptly collapsed down onto it and was asleep in seconds.

**OOOOOO**

The cell door swinging open startled him awake untold hours later, and he raised his head as panicked thoughts about sleeping away all of his allotted time swirled around in his mind. His racing heart calmed though when he saw Ansem coming through the door, carrying a tray of food. The smell of it touched Lea's nose, and his stomach growled loudly. How long had it been since he'd last eaten?

Ansem didn't say a word as he set the tray on the small table and then moved to sit in the chair that Xehanort had been in earlier. He gave Lea an expecting look, and Lea gingerly stood up from the bed. He sagged and let out a sigh when his head did not protest the movement, and he had only a lingering ache as he walked to the table and sat down.

The meal that Ansem had brought him was simple: soup, small salad, a sandwich cut into quarters, and a pitcher of lemon water, and Lea wasted no time in making short work of it. Soon only crumbs and little drops of salad dressing remained on the plates. Lea just barely covered his mouth in time for the belch that came out, and he looked over his shoulder and gave Ansem a sheepish look.

"I see that Heir Xehanort hasn't had much luck in improving your table manners." Ansem said with a disapproving frown.

"Well, it's not like his opinions matter to me, so it's not important." Lea stood up from the table and stretched. "Coming to visit so I don't go stir crazy down here?"

"I came down to speak to you about the choice that he gave you."

"Why do you care?"

"I am afraid that my reasons aren't entirely selfless. Simply put, I need you to help my son to keep his head."

Lea gave Ansem a strange look. "The hell does that mean?"

"Heir Xehanort will never be free of the Darkness, Lea. After falling so far, it is a part of him and cannot be removed. I'm sure that you have noticed flickers of it whenever he is angry."

Lea suddenly thought of that night, of feeling the Darkness after Xehanort had abruptly left the cabin, and he shivered. "Yeah," he said quietly, "I've noticed."

"Help him to not fall again, Lea."

Lea whipped his head up to stare at Ansem. "How in the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Be attentive when he teaches you. Learn from him. Be a companion. He's been dark aligned for decades, but he has told me that he did not completely fall until his Master Limahl had passed on, as he hadn't wanted to disappoint him. I need you to take Master Limahl's place as his anchor to reality, his light against the Darkness that wants to devour him. He has clawed his way out of the mire once; he won't be able to manage that a second time."

"Why should I do anything for him, after everything he's done? For that matter, why should you?"

"Because he's still my son, Lea. You look at him and see the monster that destroyed Radiant Garden. I look at him and see the lost boy that I welcomed into my home and heart years ago."

"That lost boy experimented on the people he was supposed to protect, threw you into the Realm of Darkness, and _destroyed the world_ if you remember. Why should I help him?"

Ansem looked at him for a moment. "Please, Lea," he finally said, and Lea was startled to hear the Lord of Radiant Garden begging. "Please. He is my son still, despite everything, and you're his best chance for coming through this with his sanity intact. He won't stay here and let me help him for fear of endangering me. You're my only hope for not losing him to the Darkness again."

"Again, why should I care?"

Ansem closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed. He then looked up at Lea with a serious expression.

"Because everything that he's told you: about the Council of the Keys, about Isa, and about what they will do when they no longer have any use for him, is the complete truth. He is Isa's only hope, so if you want Isa back alive, with his heart intact, then you need Xehanort."

"Are you blackmailing me or something?" Lea asked as he gave Ansem a dirty look.

"Just stating the truth as it stands, Lea. No more and no less. You need Heir Xehanort to have any chance of bringing Isa home, and Xehanort, whether he admits it or not, needs you to hold his Darkness back long enough to do so."

Lea growled and raked his hand back through his hair as he realized the truth of Ansem's statement. "This is so damned unfair."

Ansem nodded. "It is. I am not unaware of the atrocities my son has committed, Lea, and I am not ignoring his crimes. By the laws I swore to uphold after my father passed, I should have him hung, but I am a parent, and no true parent wants to execute their own child. But..." Ansem trailed off, and his eyes took on a faraway look for a moment. "Xehanort is the only one who can right his wrongs. No one else has the power or the knowledge."

"And once he has done all of that, then what? What will you do then?"

Ansem took a shuddering breath. "I try not to think that far ahead. My father and grandmother would be horrified to learn about what I allowed to happen to this world, but I like to think that they would understand the difficulties that I am facing with my son." He stood up from the chair and stepped over to the table. Lea looked up at him as he collected the dishes, leaving the water pitcher and glass behind. "Xehanort will return within the hour, to hear your decision, Lea. I suggest that you think hard about what you want to have happen until then."

Lea said nothing as Ansem walked out of the cell, and once the door shut behind him, he shivered and folded his arms on the table before lying his head down on then. As much as he hated to admit it, he did need Xehanort's help to bring Isa home. Masters Mickey, Yen Sid, Aqua, and Riku had talked about how unfair it was that the Council had taken Isa, but none of them had actually tried to _do_ anything about it. Sure they had other things to worry about, but that was no reason to just let Isa suffer all alone somewhere! Lea slammed his fist down on the surface of the table. It wasn't fair! They were supposed to have gotten their hearts back after the Organization's destruction and go back to living the lives that Xehanort had stolen from them! Instead he was stuck facing an impossible choice: doing nothing and being just as useless as everyone else when it came to finding Isa, or swallowing his pride and begging Xehanort's forgiveness. He could just let Xehanort handle it himself, but after what Ansem had said, it didn't seem as though Xehanort was capable of lasting that long. Despite everything that had happened, Lord Ansem had never lied to his people, and Lea had no reason to believe he would start now.

Ugh...

An hour later, the cell door opened, and Xehanort swept into the room, with only the rustle of fabric to announce his arrival.

"Choose, Lea." he said.

Well, there was really only once choice to make, was there?

Lea sighed, stood up from the chair, and looked Xehanort in the eye.

"Master Xehanort," he said formally, "I offer you my unreserved apology for my blatant disrespect of you earlier. It was rude and completely uncalled for, and I completely ignored the help you were trying to give me." His skin crawled, and the words felt dirty on his tongue, but he forced himself to keep talking. He had to do this, for Isa. "I ask for your forgiveness and assure you it will not happen again."

Xehanort looked at him for a long moment, without saying anything, and Lea felt sweat pop out on his forehead as he waited. Had he bought it? Or was he simply going to walk away and leave Lea behind?

The silence stretched out between them, and then Lea felt his body sag with relief when Xehanort smiled at him. It was a genuine, warm smile, and it was reflected in his golden eyes. Lea found himself thinking of the days before Radiant Garden's fall, of how Xehanort's smiles had made people melt. His horrific injuries upon his rescue had caused many to speculate that he'd been trying to escape an abusive home, and everyone had come to care about him as a result. Offers to take him in had flooded in from everywhere, and his adoption by Ansem had resulted in a world wide party that had lasted for three days.

"Well done, Lea." Xehanort said, startling Lea out of his memories. "You have just shown me that you are serious about seeing Isa safely home. Still, this is your final warning. I expect obedience from here on out. If you push me to the point I throw you back here again, I will not accept you back a second time. Am I understood?"

Just saying the words made Lea feel like he needed a shower, but he did so anyway. "Yes, Master Xehanort, I understand."

Xehanort nodded sharply. "Good." A healing spell washed over Lea then, relieving the remains of the migraine, and a portal opened up next to him. "Let's go."

Lea hesitated only for a second before he walked through.


	5. Calypso

_Dear Isa,_

_I'm ready to scream in frustration over here._

_I had to apologize to Xehanort again. I HATE doing that!_

_Yeah, I shouted at him, and I can't help but wonder if he really is planning to try and possess me like he did you. It would be easy for him; we're all alone out here, and I know damned well I'd stand no chance against him in a fight, especially a magic based one._

_I accused him of planning to do just that, and he threw me through a portal back into Radiant Garden. Oh, and that's when I found out he and Ansem had made a bet over how long it would be until I pissed him off long enough to do that! Seriously! They made a bet on me! I can't believe that!_

_Ansem lost, by the way, and now he owes Xehanort 200 munny because of it. I'm sure it's just pocket change to him, but come on! It's the principle of the thing!_

_Well anyway, I tried to leave and tell everyone that Ansem and Xehanort are in contact with each other, but Xehanort came right up behind me and dropped me with a sleep spell. I woke up later in the castle dungeons, with a bitch of a headache and a nasty bruise on my head to show for it. I threw up when I tried to move around, and I found out that Xehanort had been watching me the entire time I was out. He says it was just to make sure that I didn't die or anything, but I'm still creeped out about it._

_So, I was wearing this set of leather cuffs that had all of these weird etches on them – runes, Xehanort explained later – and they prevented me from using any magic or summoning my keyblade. The thing is, Xehanort is also wearing a set. I've seen them before whenever he had his coat off, but they don't seem to be working for him, since he throws magic around like it's nothing and summons his keyblade all the damned time. I kinda want to ask him about it, but at the same time I want to talk to him as little as possible._

_Ansem laid out the facts for me, you know. It's either help Norty or never see you again. Not the greatest choice in the worlds, but one Ansem and Nort-nort forced me into making. What else could I do? I swore I would do whatever it took to find you, and now that includes acting as Xehanort's morality chain – somehow. I'm not sure how Ansem expects this to work, but whatever._

_So yeah, I apologized to him, and he opened a portal and brought me back to the cabin on that desolate world. He immediately started keyblade training as soon as we stepped out the other side. He had to take the cuffs off of me to do that. The instant he touched them, they expanded until they were large enough to slip over my hands. Were the damned things bound to him or something? And that makes me wonder if they one that he's wearing are bound to Ansem. Maybe they're on so Ansem can cut his magic off at any time? But how do they work? Can they be turned on and off like that?_

_Well, I sure as hell ain't gonna ask him. He'd probably tell me it was none of my business anyway._

_Now, I have to finish up this letter so I can start breakfast. He started up all my lessons just like nothing had happened, and that includes cooking, and he expects me to make at least one of our meals every day, with him supervising, and it's my turn to do breakfast today. At least he goes and gets the ingredients for me – he says this world is too dangerous for me to leave the warded circle around the cabin. Once we move on to another world, he says he'll teach me to hunt and forage._

_Strangely enough, part of me is actually looking forward to it. Me, looking forward to learning things? Who knew?_

_Anyway, that's all for now. I'll write again soon._

_Love you (still not that way!_

_Lea_

**OOOOOO**

"You're trying too hard."

Xehanort's voice jolted Lea out of his latest (failed) attempt to cast healing magic. "Huh?"

Xehanort crossed the short distance from the cabin's door to the spot in the yard where Lea was standing. "I said that you are trying too hard. You're trying to brute force the result you want instead of letting your magic flow freely." Xehanort stood behind him. "Relax. You're wound up like a watch spring."

"I can't get this shit to work!"

"I know, I know." Xehanort said quietly. "I understand how frustrating it is. It took me months to get healing magic to work, and not only was I not under the time pressures that you are, but magic comes naturally to me. You can imagine how irritated I was over the difficulties I was having, even with Master Limahl's calm assurance that such struggle was normal for new learners."

"I wonder if he struggled with it too."

"He did. He landed somewhere in between those that have magic come to them easily and those who struggle to get anywhere. His magic was powerful, but he had to work very hard for years to get to that point."

"So what do I do?"

Lea felt Xehanort's hands on his shoulders. "Relax, first of all. Stop worrying about it. Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Don't think about Isa. Don't worry about the Council of the Keys. Just relax."

Lea did as instructed, letting his muscles relax and letting the tension melt away. He leaned backwards into Xehanort's hands as his eyes closed.

"Feel for your magic." Xehanort was nearly whispering. "Feel it flowing through you. Imagine it surging forward to do as you bid. Think about what you want it to do; you want it to get rid of the aches in your muscles from being wound up for too long. You want it to banish the headache that you have as a result. Think about that, visualize it, and then let the magic flow."

Lea took another deep breath and imagined what his body looked like on the inside. The bones, the muscles, blood, nerves, and sinew, all tied together to make him. Running through it all was an invisible current. His magic ebbed and flowed through him, even while he was asleep.

"Do you feel it?" came Xehanort's voice from behind him. "Do you see it?"

"Yes."

"You control the magic; it does not control you. It is able and willing to obey you, but you must give it the correct instructions. You must not force it, like you've been trying to do. Just ask, and it will do as you will."

Lea called on the magic, and it surged forward, rushing towards his hands like it always did. He let it go, not giving it any direction other than to come to the fore. As it had before, it seemed almost eager to answer his summons.

"Now cast."

Lea raised his hand. "Heal," he said in a quiet voice, and a moment later, he heard the soft chime of the magic materializing above him, followed by the feel of it running down over him, banishing his muscle aches and headache. He let his hand drop and sighed before he stood up and opened his eyes.

"Well done, Lea." came Xehanort's voice, and he turned to look at him.

"Why didn't you do this to begin with?" he asked.

"I was hoping that you would get it on your own." Xehanort replied as he stepped back. "The method we just tried does have its drawbacks, and you'll have to wean yourself off of it before you can cast healing magic freely, without having to think about it."

"Then why did you bother?"

"Because we're in a hurry. I want you to stay out here until lunch, trying to decrease your casting time. I want you casting as quickly as possible before we leave here, since you may end up critically injured out there and not have the time to do the visualization before you bleed to death."

"Do you want me to help make lunch?"

"No, I want you focused on this. I will take care of lunch and dinner, as well as breakfast tomorrow. Now, keep working."

Xehanort turned and walked back inside the cabin, and Lea watched him until he vanished inside, before he sighed, shook his head, and set to work.

The clearing was bathed in shadows, and the sun was sinking beneath the horizon when Xehanort called Lea inside for dinner hours later. He trudged inside and kicked his boots off just inside the door, so not to track snow and mud all over the floor. His stomach growled as he sat down at the table, and he winced as he raked his grimy hair out of his face. He hadn't had a bath or shower since they'd left Meadowseele, and all they had in the cabin were quick wipe downs with conjured water.

"I really want a hot bath." he grumbled as he tried to ignore how greasy his hair felt.

"You'll get one soon enough." Xehanort said from over by the fireplace. "I'm going to give you another day to work on healing magic, and then we'll be going to The Caribbean and then on to Olympus Coliseum."

"Why those two worlds?" Lea asked as he leaned forward onto the table.

"Because there are gods and goddesses that I can speak to."

"Gods and goddesses... Wait, you are going to walk right up to actual gods and just talk to them?"

Xehanort stood up from the fireplace and turned to look at him. "Yes, is that too difficult to understand?"

"But, they're _gods_."

"Yes, they are." Xehanort turned back around to the fireplace and pulled the beef stew off the hook, before he pulled the biscuits off the coals. "They will still speak to me if I ask."

"So you're just going to waltz up to them and say "Hey, can I have a few minutes of your time?'"

"Not in that exact wording, but yes, that is the gist of it."

Lea headdesked against the table. "You're insane."

Xehanort laughed. "More than you will ever know, Lea. Now, let's eat."

The first part of dinner passed in silence, and Lea found himself growing antsy at it, shifting in his chair, tapping the fingers of his left hand against the tabletop, and spooning up bits of his stew and letting it plop back down into the bowl. Xehanort gave him a warning look, to which Lea only grinned unrepentantly and continued.

"You, Lea Rosso, are very infuriating at times." Xehanort said in a low tone.

"Yeah, my mom told me the same thing a few times."

"You must have given your parents so many gray hairs."

"So they claimed."

"Several times."

"Yeah, yeah – Wait," Lea looked at Xehanort in confusion. "How would you know?"

"I am Radiant Garden's heir, Lea. Who do you think had to speak to your parents about all those times you and Isa tried to sneak into the castle? The guards quickly grew tired of chasing you two around, so they asked my father to intervene. My father in turn, told me to summon your parents and speak to them about it."

"Oh, right." Lea thought back, remembering the harsh lecture that he and Isa had received from both sets of parents about their sneak attempts. After that Isa had refused to try again. "That explains why they were so pissed at us about it."

"Being summoned by the prince and told to bring their children under control will cause that."

Lea gave Xehanort a hard stare. "You weren't an asshole about it, were you?"

Xehanort looked affronted at the mere thought. "Of course not!" he said vehemently. "I was very calm and polite about it. I think they were more angry about it than I was. I found the entire thing funny, to be honest." He smiled faintly.

"All those times we snuck into the castle," Lea grumbled to himself, "and all we had to do was ask for an audience."

"Or you could have just paid the munny to join one of the castle tours that took place a few times a year."

"Seriously? You did castle tours?"

"Well, _I_ didn't." Xehanort paused to take a bite of his stew. He seemed to be thinking as he chewed and swallowed. "There were members of the castle staff that acted as tour guides, leading groups of people around the castle, explaining its history and construction, changes that had been made to it over the years, the story of how the Harts came to power, all of that. Sometimes the tours came across Lord Ansem or myself as we went about our days, but it didn't happen often.

"At least one tour guide was dismissed from her job when she decided to lead the tour into the castle infirmary and tried to get them into the private room where I was recovering after Braig had found me. The doctor in charge of the infirmary, Sonora Bryer, stopped them from actually getting into my room, but not before they'd made enough of a racket to wake me up. Since I had difficulty sleeping due to the pain I was in, that was pretty serious. She dragged them out, lectured them, and had them all thrown out of the castle."

"I knew people were a bit obsessed with you at the beginning, but that's a bit much."

"Oh, I agree. You should have seen the mountain of gifts I was sent back then. I believe most of them ended up being donated to various charities; there were more than I could have possibly kept. And this was on top of everyone trying to see me, or talk to me, or get a photograph of me. I was very relieved when I was adopted, because Lord Ansem could and did go after people that harassed me."

"The parties after that were fun, at least."

Xehanort snorted. "For you, for everyone else but me, they were."

"Oh c'mon, people were celebrating that you'd been adopted. Didn't you want to join in?"

"My father and I had our own private celebrations, along with Even and the others. I was still healing from the beating that Master Aqua had given me, I tired easily as a result, and I still felt very..." Xehanort hesitated, searching for the right words. " _adrift_. I only knew my name, the people that I saw regularly: Lord Ansem, Dr. Bryer, Even, and all the others who cared for me during those days, and that I'd just been made heir to a world that had previously been facing a succession crisis. I felt much safer and more secure than I had before, but I had no idea what to expect in my future, and it had me very nervous and worried. Joining in on wild celebrations were the last thing on my mind."

Lea leaned over the table. "Okay, now I gotta ask. How many of those 'Heir Xehanort is tired and needs to go rest.' excuses were real?"

"About half of them." The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched. "The other half were me faking it simply to get away from all of the eyes staring at me."

"Did Lord Ansem know?"

"He did. He even quietly told me at one point that I would have to get used to such appearances soon enough, as my improving health would mean I wouldn't be able to use that excuse for much longer." Xehanort leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. He then relaxed and rested one arm on the chair back. "I just didn't like being stared at. I was very happy when people got used to me being around and quit doing that." He picked up the last biscuit from the serving plate and used it to mop up the last traces of the stew from his bowl before eating it.

Lea gave him an annoyed look; he'd been intending to grab that biscuit. "Was landing yourself as Radiant Garden's heir part of your grand plan?"

"No, it wasn't. I had intended, after possessing Terra, to go off somewhere with Braig to further my schemes elsewhere, but having to seal away my heart, along with all of my memories, derailed that completely. I genuinely had no memories of my past for most of the time I lived in Radiant Garden, and even after they started to come back to me, I didn't recall everything. It wasn't until I regained my senses after the events with my oldest self in Where Nothing Gathers that everything came back."

"Didn't stop you from wrecking things, did it?" Lea stared at Xehanort, met his eyes, daring him to answer.

"No," Xehanort's voice was much quieter, "it didn't."

The cabin fell silent again as Xehanort stood up and carried his dishes away from the table to start the clean up. Lea quickly finished his own stew and did the same, kicking himself for killing the conversation.

Well, _someone_ had to ask the hard questions, he thought as they washed up and got ready for bed. It's not like Ansem was going to. Someone had to keep reminding Xehanort that he was on borrowed time. People were hunting him, after all, and it wouldn't do for him to be caught – yet. Once Isa was safe, then he would see what he could do about that.

**OOOOOO**

The next day dragged on as Lea stood outside, working on healing magic. To his annoyance, Xehanort had called it; he struggled to cast without doing the visualization first.

"How did you figure that out anyway?" he asked as they sat down to lunch.

"Ventus had to use the same technique." Xehanort replied. "I came up with it out of the blue to help him get past the block."

Lea didn't hesitate with the next question. "What about Vanitas?"

"Vanitas never learned healing magic."

Lea looked at Xehanort, who was plating up fillets of catfish, which had been caught in a nearby river. "Never?"

"Never. I believe that he was truly not capable of it, due to what he was." Xehanort carried the fish over to the table and set Lea's plate down in front of him. He then sat down with his own plate.

"Were you as strict with Ventus and Vanitas as you were with me?"

Xehanort didn't answer for several minutes. He sat back in his chair, looking at Lea, and then his eyes took on a faraway look. Lea watched him, all the while picking off slivers of meat from his fillet and eating them.

"Before I fell," Xehanort finally said, "I was strict with Ventus, yes, but only because we were traveling the worlds and thus had no true safe place. I'd taken him in when he was very small, and there were always the risks associated with having a small child on such excursions. Several worlds, including this one at one time, have slave trades, child prostitution rings, and places where it just wasn't safe for a child to be alone without an adult. Ventus had to do what I said, when I said, if he wanted to stay safe. That there were no less than three kidnapping attempts against him only hammered that even further home to both of us. I avoided taking him to the really dangerous places when he was younger, but even safer worlds have hidden dangers.

"Once I had fallen, I was not strict, I was _abusive_. I treated a boy that I had once loved like a son as a tool to further my own ends. Once I'd ripped his heart in two, I was the same to Vanitas. Sending Ventus to the Land of Departure was the best thing I could have done for him, even if I did so with nefarious intentions in mind."

Lea thought on that for a moment. "So..." he began, "what happened to Vanitas?"

"Vanitas was freed of my influence, which allowed him to fully rejoin with Ventus."

"Vanitas was a vessel?"

Xehanort nodded and focused his attention on his fish. "The third one I freed. I would have preferred him to have been first, in all honesty, but with Ventus hidden by Master Aqua in Castle Oblivion, I had to wait. Once I'd rescued her, and she turned the castle back to its original form, then I had to wait for her to go off-world long enough for me to find Ventus and do what needed to be done."

"Wait, you freed Vanitas from within Ventus?"

"Yes, their sheared hearts tried to recombined into one when they fought and forged the imperfect X-blade, and Vanitas took the sliver of my heart with him when they did." Xehanort leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. "I got lucky there. I didn't expect Master Aqua to leave Ventus unattended once she'd turned the world back, but she was determined to save Terra somehow, which gave me the opening I needed. With the weakened wards, once she was off-world, she never knew I was there, and I was gone before Ventus came around."

Something flickered in Xehanort's eyes then, and he was quiet for a long moment. "Anyway," he finally said, breaking the silence, "once I freed Ventus, I then did the same for Terra, which was a monumental task, but soon Terra was the fourth vessel freed."

"How _did_ you free Terra?"

"The short of it is that Xemnas paid far more attention and understood much more about the Replica program than he let on. And since all the equipment is still around on Never Was, it was easy enough to go there and do what was needed."

"What about the others?" Lea asked just before he took another bite of his fish.

"My Heartless and Nobody will simply never be pulled forward to this time again and will be defeated by Sora in their own time like normal, which allowed me to reform as a complete person. The same goes for my oldest self; he will use his heart to take over this body, and his own body will be lost right after. He'll never come forward in time either. My youngest self is the same; he will never come forward in time again, and less than a month after traveling here, Master Limahl will stop at the Destiny Islands and offer to take him off of his foster parents' hands."

Lea wasn't sure he'd heard that right. "Foster parents?"

Xehanort ignored him. "I freed Rould – you knew him as Luxord – not long after freeing Terra".

Lea nearly choked on the water he was drinking. "Luxord was a vessel too? Since when?"

"Not long before Xemnas was defeated. Demyx was also added just before he was sent to the Underworld."

"Demyx too!"

"Yeah, Xemnas was growing a little desperate by then."

"Seriously!" Lea paused to eat the last bite of his fish and sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest, "that's your oldest self, Xemnas, your Heartless, your teenaged self, Terra, Isa, Braig, Lumaria, Ventus, Luxord, and Demyx." He quickly counted them up. "That's only eleven, who are the other two?"

"Sora was intended to be thirteen, but you foiled that plan." The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched again.

"Yay," Lea said in a deadpan voice. "Who's the other person?"

"That person was the first one freed."

"Wait, I thought that was Lumaria?"

"He thinks he was the first, but he was actually the second. As soon as I came back to myself after clawing my way out of the Darkness, that person was there in front of me, and I took the chance that was presented."

"Yeah, but who was it?"

Xehanort stood up and carried his plate away to wash it. "No one you need to worry about, Lea. All you need to worry about are Braig and Isa. They are the only ones left."

"Why won't you tell me who it is?" Lea paused. "It's not me, is it?"

Xehanort turned and looked at him in disapproval. "No," he said firmly, "it's not you."

"Then why don't you want to tell me?"

"Because it's none of your concern. It is a private matter between myself and that person, and nothing you need to worry about." He turned back to washing his plate.

Lea stayed in his chair, gnawing on his lip, as his thoughts tumbled around inside of his head.

"It was Ansem, wasn't it?" he asked quietly as he looked up at Xehanort, who froze in place at the question. "That's why he trusts you. Because you freed him."

Xehanort didn't move for the longest time, and then his shoulders slumped as he let out a quiet sigh. "Yes," he whispered, "it was him. It was why I threw him into the Realm of Darkness instead of killing him all of those years. Not because part of me didn't want to, but because I needed him alive." Xehanort leaned heavily on the counter next to the fireplace. "Since coming back together as a whole person, I'd been having little moments of clarity, times where my real personality from before my fall seemed to be trying to reassert itself. By the time we all met in Where Nothing Gathers, I was having serious doubts whenever my mind was clear. It was in one of those clear moments that I tracked Lord Ansem down in the Realm of Darkness and got him out. I removed the fragment of my heart from his, and..." Xehanort trailed off and didn't say any more. He grabbed his coat, gloves, and boots, put them back on, and vanished out the door.

Lea sat in the empty silence of the cabin for a few minutes, before he got up, washed his plate, and then went back outside to work on his casting.

Xehanort reappeared just before dinner time.

Lea paused in his spellcasting and watched him walk across the yard to the cabin. He was carrying another rabbit in his hand, and he waved Lea away when he took a step towards the cabin door. Lea shrugged and turned back to his magic practice until Xehanort called him in for dinner later.

The meal was eaten in total silence, and several times Lea opened his mouth to try and start a conversation, only to close it with no words spoken. What was he going to say anyway? Instead he ate quickly, helped clean up, and then wrote another letter to Isa before heading to bed.

**OOOOOO**

"No, no, I'm sorry."

The sound of Xehanort's voice dragged Lea out of the deep sleep that he'd been in, and he grumbled as he looked over his shoulder at him.

Xehanort appeared to be asleep, just as he had been the last time this had happened, but he was shifting around in bed, twisted up in his blankets.

"I never wanted this." he whimpered – whimpered! Seriously? Lea shook his head in disgust and laid back down.

"I didn't mean..."

With an aggravated sigh, Lea grabbed his pillow and pulled down over his ears to try and muffle Xehanort's words. Who in the hell was he talking to anyway? Ansem?

"I'm sorry, Master! Don't leave me alone!"

Or Master Limahl. Wonderful.

"Cut it out, Nort-nort." Lea grumbled. "I'm trying to sleep here."

"Papa..."

"Oh damn it all." Lea swung his legs out of bed and reached across the narrow gap between the beds to grab Xehanort's shoulder and shake him awake. The instant he touched him, however, Xehanort's eyes flew open, he bolted upright in bed, and No Name appeared in his hand in an instant. Before Lea could blink, he found his head titled back as far as it could go, with the keyblade pressed against his neck. He swallowed, heart hammering, and felt the blade press even harder for a second.

"Lea?" Xehanort said, and the pressure against his neck abruptly vanished as the keyblade was withdrawn and dismissed. "What in the worlds?"

Lea rubbed at his neck, half expecting to find a gaping hole and copious amounts of blood, but there was nothing. "You were having a bad dream or something."

"You tried to wake me up." It was a statement, not a question. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah,"

There was a barely audible sigh. "I apologize, Lea. I had no idea that was you. Just... try to avoid doing that again in the future."

"I sure as hell intend to."

"If you need to wake me, calling my name is a better option." Lea saw Xehanort's silhouette lie back down. "Go back to sleep. We leave here tomorrow."

"Sure," Lea said in a faint voice, "Sleep, yeah, after that?"

" _Sleep_ , Lea."

 _Not again_ , was all Lea had time to think before Xehanort's magic once again put him under.

**OOOOOO**

Waves rolled endlessly on beneath them as Lea, on his glider, followed Xehanort over the ocean towards the distant shore. They'd entered this world just at sunset, flying high over a large port city that had loud music and drunken voices drifting up from it, before they'd changed direction and headed out over the open ocean. Full night had quickly fallen, and they found their way lit only by the glittering hearts of the other worlds. There was no sign of any kind of moon that Lea could see.

After flying for a while, Lea sighed in relief to see Xehanort descending towards a river estuary that was just barely visible in the nighttime gloom. Waves broke upon a sandy beach as they came down for a landing and walked a short distance to a small, wooden canoe that was dragged up onto the sand aside the river. Without a word spoken, Xehanort gestured for Lea to get in. Lea clambered in, and Xehanort easily launched the canoe into the river and hopped in himself. There were no paddles, but they seemed to not be needed as the canoe easily began moving upstream, against the river current.

Lea looked back at Xehanort to find the keyblade master seated in the back of the canoe, staring quietly at the river ahead. His hair was moving in the ocean breeze, almost like a living entity in its own right, and Lea shivered and looked away as Xehanort's magic flickered over his skin.

The sound of the waves faded as they slowly moved upriver, and the tall trees with their moss-draped branches and long, twisted roots that were half out of the water closed over them, blocking out the light from the other worlds. Cicadas, frogs, and crickets began their calls, filling the air with their songs as the ocean breeze vanished, and Lea felt sweat break out on his forehead as the cloying humidity seemed to suddenly press in around him. Buzzing insects flew close to him, and he reached up and swatted at them. Sweat ran down his face and down the back of his neck as his coat's inner lining seemed to stick to him.

"Do not take your coat off." Xehanort said sternly as Lea reached for the zipper.

"C'mon, it's hotter than hell here."

"I know it is, but that coat is the best protection you have against the mosquitoes that will make a meal out of you at the first possible chance."

"What, are the mosquitoes here worse than the ones in Radiant Garden?"

"The ones here carry disease, and malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, tularemia, and other mosquito-borne diseases are not something you wish to tangle with. So, no matter how hot it becomes, keep your coat on."

Lea crossed his arms over his chest and tried to ignore how hot it was getting. "Fine."

The canoe continued it's silent glide through the river, and ahead and two the left, there was a large splash. Lea jumped and looked in that direction, but he saw nothing but ripples in the water.

"Be at ease, Lea." Xehanort said quietly. "That was an alligator, a large reptile native to this river. Nothing here will harm you as long as you are with me."

"That's not what you said before we came here."

" _Before we go anywhere, Lea," Xehanort said firmly, "I want you to listen closely, so I don't have to repeat this. We are going to the other side of the world of the Caribbean to meet someone. This person is very powerful and dangerous when angered. Thankfully, she likes me, but even I won't be able to save you if you offend her. Keep your mouth shut, and if she speaks to you, keep your tone civil. Am I understood?"_

_Lea gave him a strange look. "You're admitting that someone is more powerful than you?"_

" _Yes, Lea, I am."_

" _And here I thought that you were the most powerful human in the worlds"_

_Xehanort summoned his glider and opened the Lanes Between. "I never said she was human."_

Lea shivered again. Not human? What did she look like then? Some kind of creature? And just how powerful was she? Around them, the trees seemed to close in as the river narrowed, and the branches above them rustled as things scuttled across them.

"Tia Dalma will not harm you unless you offend her, so keep your tongue behind your teeth and you should be fine."

"'Should be' you say."

"Well, she has forcibly kept men that caught her attention by her side before, but I think I'll be able to convince her to not do that to you, as long as you don't do anything stupid." Lea looked over his shoulder to see Xehanort looking at him with one side of his mouth curled up into a smile.

He turned back around just in time to see a low clinging fog rising from the water in front of them. "What's to stop her from keeping a hold of you, then?"

"Only that she knows that there are those even more powerful than her and that it wouldn't do to risk angering them."

"And keeping you will anger them?"

"Yes."

"Who, the Council of the Keys?"

"No, someone far more powerful than they could ever dream to be."

Lea opened his mouth to ask another question, but a faint glow from between the trees stopped him. It danced in and out of view, being visible between the thick tree trunks only for a fraction of a second before vanishing. It was a flame of some kind, he could detect that right away, but he couldn't pick up anything else about it.

"It's just a porch light." Xehanort said from behind him, and sure enough, the canoe rounded a bend in the river, which allowed them to see the small shack situated right on the water front, with the elderly man seated in a rocking chair, a hound dog at his feet. The man raised a hand that was withered with age in a greeting, and Lea hesitantly returned it.

"People live here?" he asked.

"They do. It can be a very hard life at times, but no one here would trade it for anything."

Lea wiped the sweat from his forehead and wondered about that as they left the old man and his little shack behind them. After living for years in Radiant Garden, he couldn't imagine life without electricity and running water. Even the castle at Never Was had had both of those, yet these people were apparently happy without them.

"I guess you can't miss what you've never had." he said quietly as they passed another riverside shack, this one ringing with the sound of children laughing and playing.

"It's like this on several worlds where technology has not advanced very far. These people are very proud and would soundly reject any attempt to 'help' them. As far as they are concerned, they have everything they need, so such 'help' is condescending at best, insulting at worst. They are wary of outsiders and watch everyone but me closely, but they will not harm you as long as you don't start anything."

"You seem to know a lot about this place."

"I lived here for a short time years ago."

"So do you have a little shack to call your own somewhere along this river?"

"It wasn't along the river; it was quite a distance into the forest, and no. I haven't been here since Ventus was small, and abandoned structures don't last very long in this climate." Xehanort paused for a second as they passed more riverside shacks. "Though I suppose it could be possible that Tia Dalma has maintained it for me. We will have to see."

Ahead of them, the river went around a bend, the fog creeping along its surface thickened, and the sounds of the swamp seemed to quiet and fade. Along the turn, on the right shore, a structure came into a view. It was a shack, much larger than the others that they'd seen so far, and it sat above the water on tree roots and posts. A ladder led down from a front porch to a small jetty, and Lea realized that the canoe was heading right for that jetty.

"Remember what I told you earlier." Xehanort said. "Keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and keep your tongue civil when you do speak."

"Did you give the same warnings to Ventus?"

"Ventus was a nine year old boy, one that Tia Dalma was fond of, so any attitude on his part resulted in at worst being sent to the corner. You are a grown man."

"Fine."

The canoe bumped into the small jetty, and Xehanort easily hopped onto it and used a rope that had been in the back of the canoe to tie it up. Lea slowly climbed out to join him, and they went up the ladder to the porch above.

Insects buzzed around the porch light, and Xehanort took a quick glance through a mullioned window set into the door before he knocked. The door swung slowly open on creaking hinges, and the voice of a siren called out from within. Lea didn't understand the words, but the invitation was clear as they stepped inside.

The single room that took up the interior of the entire shack was warmly lit by dozens of candles that were mounted on candelabras along the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and sitting on tables. Jars and baskets also hung from the ceiling, and Lea backed up a step when he realized that one jar was full of eyeballs, all of which were staring at him. He carefully stepped around them, and they followed him as he went. A long, white snake was draped from one of the posts that supported the roof, and it raised its head and hissed at him as he followed Xehanort to the center of the room.

A woman that had to be Tia Dalma was seated there at a table that was covered with books, candles, a few bats mounted on stands, and several crab claws. She looked up when the door opened, and her face slowly melted into a wide smile that showed her teeth. She said something that was probably Xehanort's name, but Lea couldn't be sure.

She stood up from her chair, which allowed Lea to get a good look at her dreadlocked hair, as well as the scrappy dress she was wearing.

 _How in the world does she stand wearing that heavy thing in this heat?_ Lea wondered as she stepped forward to greet Xehanort.

"Tia Dalma," Xehanort said with a smile as he kissed her on the cheek, "it's been a long time."

Lea frowned as her thick accent caused him to miss what she said in reply. She then looked past Xehanort, and her smile widened when she saw Lea standing there.

"An who is dis?" she asked, as she stepped towards him to take a closer look. Lea swallowed and just barely managed to stop himself from taking a step back away from her. Something about her... Her presence felt _heavy_ – that was the only way he could describe it. It made the feel of Xehanort's power seem slight in comparison.

"This is Lea." Xehanort replied as he turned to give Lea another warning look. "He's my newest apprentice."

Tia Dalma turned back towards Xehanort and asked him a question that Lea once again couldn't understand from her accent, but he did hear Ventus' name being mentioned.

"Ventus is no longer with me." was Xehanort's flat answer, and Tia Dalma gave him a long look before she abruptly turned back to face Lea. She stepped closer to him, close enough for him to see the markings on her face, and the hair on the back of his arms stood up as she reached up to carefully touch his face with one slim hand.

"You heart heavy wid worry." she told him, and Lea jumped at the insight. "Yah broder in danger."

"Y.. yeah." He looked directly at her – were her eyes red? "How did you know that? Did Xehanort tell you?"

She stepped away and moved over to a small sofa, where she made herself comfortable. "I know many tings, Lea Rosso. I know what you seek. I know why you here."

"And why are we here?"

Tia Dalma gave Xehanort a sharp look, and the Keyblade Master bowed his head before he went to a chair close to her and sat down.

"Go wait out on the porch, Lea." Xehanort said quietly. "Tia Dalma and I have things to discuss in private."

Lea shook himself and wrenched his gaze away from Tia Dalma. "What?"

"Go outside, and wait on the porch while Tia Dalma and I talk. I will be out to fetch you when we are done."

Lea blinked in confusion. "Um, okay then."

Xehanort made a shooing motion with his hand, and Lea shook his head again as he turned and walked without a word out of the shack to stand on the porch. The floorboards creaked loudly with every step as he went, and the sound of the door closing behind him made him start and look up.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he reached up and rubbed his eyes. "What was that all about?"

He leaned back against the wall behind him as the sounds of the swamp surrounded him. Despite the thin walls, he couldn't hear any sound from within the shack, which meant he wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on Xehanort and Tia Dalma's conversation.

Lights started going out behind windows and on the porches of the other shacks, deepening the gloom, until he couldn't see anything past the soft yellow glow of Tia Dalma's porch light. The fog rising off the water grew thicker and swirled about the canoe and jetty, and Lea shivered despite the heat. Sweat ran down the back of his neck, and he blew out a breath and wiped his forehead with the back of his gloved hand.

"To hell with it." he grumbled as he unzipped his coat and shrugged it off. The coat's lining peeled away from his bare arms as he let it fall to the porch, and he sighed as the temperature around him seemed to drop a few degrees. He leaned back against the wall of the shack, still not able to hear anything from inside, slapped away a few mosquitoes, and crossed his arms over his chest to wait.

Several minutes later, the front door opened, and Xehanort's voice called for him to come back in. Lea sighed again, picked up his coat, slipped it back on, zipped it up, and went inside.

Xehanort, he was quick to notice, was still in the chair, but his eyes were closed, and his head was bowed. Tia Dalma was staring at him with a hard look that made Lea shiver again, but then she looked up at him, and the look was quickly replaced by a warm smile. She gestured Lea into a nearby chair, and as he sat, Xehanort looked up at her. It was hard to tell in the yellow lighting, but his eyes appeared to have reddened circles around them. Had he been crying or something?

"So, what can you tell me, Tia Dalma?" he asked, and his voice came out hoarse. He cleared it and then spoke again. "Have they been here?"

"What you seek is not here." Tia Dalma said. "Dem stay away from here because dem feer me."

"Who?" Lea asked, which caused Xehanort and Tia Dalma to look at him. "The Council?"

"Indeed." Xehanort was the one to answer. "We know where they have their castle, but I can tell that Isa has not been there in some time."

"Dem moving him round to mek it hard to find him." Tia Dalma added, and then she looked at Xehanort. "You are hoping dat you'll be able to ambush dem somewhere."

Xehanort nodded. "That's what I would like to happen. Their castle's wards are impressive and I would have no chance of breaching them without being noticed."

"Wait," Lea sat up in the chair, "you said before that you can track Isa."

"I can." Xehanort nodded again. "But the Council knows that, so they don't keep him in one place long."

"But they said the entire reason they took him was to use him for bait. Why won't they let you get close?"

"That is the question, isn't it?"

"Dem has a reason." Tia Dalma said. "Dem not foolish." She looked at Xehanort. "You must be careful. Dem know you following dem an will plan for it."

"Where are they now?" Lea asked.

Xehanort paused and titled his head to the side. "On one of the outer worlds. We're too far away for me to know exactly which one though."

Lea jumped to his feet. "So why are we just sitting here? Let's get going!"

"Sit down, Lea." Xehanort waved at him to sit. "They know that I'll be following them, so they'll simply keep moving to stay ahead of us. We have to find out which worlds that they frequently stop at, as well as the ones they avoid, so we can lie in wait for them."

"Even you stand no chance agenst all sevan at once." Tia Dalma said as she gave Xehanort a stern look. "De powa of yah ancestas will not help you dere."

The power of his ancestors? Lea mouthed the words to himself, wondering what they were supposed to mean.

"I know it won't." Xehanort said, his voice suddenly quiet. "Neither will they, for that matter, which is why I haven't gone to them about this."

Tia Dalma gave Xehanort a knowing look. "You should speak to him."

"He won't listen to me. Not anymore." Xehanort stood up. "You will let me know if the Council comes near here?"

Tia Dalma stood up as well. "I will." She reached out and placed her hand against Xehanort's cheek. "Dem walk wid you, even if you don' believe it."

"With the way I have shamed the one who shares my name, I highly doubt that." Xehanort waved at Lea. "Let's go, Lea." He turned towards Tia Dalma, and Lea wasn't sure what to make of the look that passed between them then. Xehanort looked resigned, while Tia Dalma simply nodded in understanding, understanding of what, Lea didn't know.

Xehanort abruptly turned away and began to walk to the door. Lea fell into step behind him.

"Lea." Tia Dalma said from behind, and Lea stopped in midstep. He heard Xehanort keep walking, and heard the shack's door open and shut as he went outside.

Tia Dalma stepped up to him, and Lea felt her presence press down on him as she moved closer.

"You don' truss him." she said simply.

"No, I don't. I can't, not after everything he's done."

She looked up at him, and her red eyes seemed to hold him in place. "You mus not let him fall again. If he does, He will burn him where he stand."

"Who?" Lea voice came out as nearly a whisper.

"Look to de sun. Den you will see. Him always watching. If you wan Isa back, you mus not let Xehanort fall."

Lea simply stared at her. No words came to him, and she smiled at him before she backed away. She then turned away from him, and Lea shivered as a chill crept up his spine.

They got back to the canoe and got started back towards the ocean without any further delay. As they were moving away from Tia Dalma's shack, Xehanort turned to look back at it.

"Aye Calypso, the places you've been to, the things that you've shown us, the stories you tell." he said quietly in a way that almost sounded like he was singing.

"Where did that come from?" Lea asked as he looked over his shoulder.

Xehanort stared silently at the slowly receding shack until it vanished behind a bend in the river, and then he sighed and turned back to face the front of the canoe. "From a world universes away from here." He slumped down and bowed his head for a moment, and Lea quickly turned away.

The rest of the trip back down the river to the ocean was strangely peaceful. The swamp was completely dark, with every porch light out for the night, and Xehanort and Lea spoke not a word as they rode the river current back to the shore. They dragged the canoe back up onto the sand, and it was then that Lea finally broke the silence.

"Why couldn't we have just flown there?" he asked as they summoned their gliders.

"We never would have been able to find her that way." Xehanort replied in a subdued tone. "One can only find Tia Dalma if she allows you to, and she expects visitors to come up the river. Trying to get to her directly would have resulted in us flying endlessly in circles, unable to see her shack."

"Why in the hell does she do that?"

"Who knows what the gods think?" Xehanort's eyes took on a faraway look for a second. "Let's go. We still have another world to get to."

"When you said we were going to see a god, Tia Dalma wasn't what I'd had in mind."

Xehanort opened the Lanes Between. "Tia Dalma has lived as a human for centuries, though it wasn't always her own choice. I suspect that she's gotten rather used to it by now."

"She just didn't seem all that powerful. More powerful than you, it seemed, but still."

"Compared to others, she isn't, but she's still miles above me, and she could have killed us both with a thought if she had so wished."

Lea looked back towards Tia Dalma's shack, and he shivered as the temperature around him seemed to take a sudden drop. He quickly turned back to Xehanort. "Well, where to now?"

"Olympus Coliseum. Well, the town aside it, but close enough."

"Somehow I don't see Hercules as the type to sit and have a chat with you."

Xehanort gave Lea a look. "Who said anything about him? There are other gods there. Now, follow me. Don't dawdle." With a flap of his glider wings, Xehanort launched himself up into the air. Lea rolled his eyes, mounted his own glider, and followed.

**OOOOOO**

The city of Thebes that sat in the shadow of Olympus Coliseum was hot and sunny when they exited the Lanes Between just outside of town. Lea felt the sun beat down on him, and he was glad for the faint breeze that brushed across his face as they came down for a landing. Once they had dismissed their keyblades, Xehanort set off at a brisk pace down the nearest road into town, and even with his long legs, Lea had to walk quickly to keep up with him.

"Hey, wait up! Where are we going?"

Xehanort didn't answer, nor did he slow down or show any other signs that he had heard Lea's question. He continued down the road and through an open gate that led into the city proper. The road turned into a street that widened as it wound through tightly packed stone buildings. Other streets crossed over it, and Lea quickly lost track of all the turns and twists that they made as Xehanort seemed to chose directions at random.

"You know where you're going, right?" Lea called out as they came up on a marketplace, one more bustling than the one at Meadowseele. He had to push his way past people to keep Xehanort in sight through the throng. Xehanort didn't slow down, and Lea grumbled to himself as he squeezed himself through a large group of people and chased after him.

The press finally eased after several blocks, which allowed Lea to run to catch up to Xehanort. "Are you trying to ditch me or something?"

Xehanort finally paused in his stride. "And here I thought you'd be eager to finally have a shower and bath after everything."

"What? Seriously, is that where we're going?"

"Yes. There is a public bathhouse up not too much further ahead, by the gymnasium up there, and we should really be clean before our next meeting."

Lea flicked his eyes up to look at the impressive stone and concrete structure up the street, before the rest of Xehanort's sentence percolated through his brain. "Public.. bathhouse?"

Xehanort nodded. "Yes, it's a public one."

"So there will be other people in there?"

"Yes, Lea."

"So we'll have to be naked?"

"That's generally a requirement of bathing, yes."

"In front of other people?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes and began to walk away. "Do you wish to bathe or not, Lea?"

Lea hurried to keep up. "I do! Just...not in front of other people." _Especially not you._ "And the last time I had to bathe in front of others, in case you've forgotten, I got felt up by a group of strange women."

"If Ventus could do it, so can you."

"You brought Ventus to these places?"

"Of course. He and I lived on the road, so it's not like we had a ready made shower and tub that we carted along with us. Now hurry up. We have someone we need to meet soon."

Lea stopped and stared after Xehanort's retreating back for a moment, and then he shook his head and hurried to catch up.

The bathhouse was a simple affair, just a large building with one large entrance, no windows, and with various designs and shapes carved into the exterior walls. The sounds of voices and running and splashing water came from within. Xehanort walked right up the steps and through the door, and Lea just stopped and watched him.

After a week with no running water, with only conjured water and rags for bathing, a hot bath sounded wonderful. And one would be waiting for him inside no doubt.

Along with Xehanort.

And a bunch of other naked people.

"Let's go, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from somewhere inside. "Unless you _want_ to go around smelling like you came from a garbage can."

"I hate him." Lea muttered to himself. He took a deep breath, told his suddenly racing heart to calm down (Which it ignored.), and went up the steps and through the wide open doorway.

Inside he found Xehanort speaking to a teenager dressed in a green, knee length, sleeveless, wool tunic. Lea didn't understand a drop of the language, but it wasn't hard to know that it was Greek being spoken. Xehanort passed some munny off to the boy, who gave him an eager smile and then scurried off.

"What was that about?" Lea asked as he came up to stand beside Xehanort.

"Paying that slave boy to get us some towels and wash our clothes for us."

Lea turned to look in the direction the boy had vanished. "He's a slave?"

"Yes. I told you before that many worlds have child slavery. This is one of them."

"It's just weird to see it, you know? Slavery has been illegal on Radiant Garden -"

"For over 800 years, since Kathan Hart seized the throne." Xehanort looked over at Lea. "What? I know my family history. Lord Ansem made sure of that."

"It's even weirder to hear you speaking so casually about Radiant Garden's history."

Xehanort shrugged his coat off and began to walk towards a doorway on the left wall of the room they were standing in. "It wouldn't do for the world's heir to not know its history."

Lea's throat nearly squeezed itself shut as he saw Xehanort begin to undress as he disappeared through a cloud of steam that wafted and drifted in from the other room. He swallowed heavily and followed.

**OOOOOO**

This was quite possible the weirdest thing he'd ever done, Lea thought as he reclined in the large communal pool. There weren't too many bathers aside from him and Xehanort, and he was grateful for that, as it allowed him to sit at the opposite end of the pool from the Keyblade Master and everyone else. He slouched down further on the stone step that he sat on until the water was nearly up to his neck. At least the water was warm...

That first room had been a large sauna, and Lea had been grateful for the billowing clouds as he and Xehanort had undressed and given their coats and clothing over to the slave boy to take care of. Xehanort had then calmly parked himself on the nearest bench, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes, while Lea had stood there, trying to look anywhere but at him, his cheeks burning hotter than his hottest fire.

"Just sit down, Lea." Xehanort had said without opening his eyes. "I'm not going to molest you."

Lea had bitten back the reply that would have certainly resulted in him being chucked back into Radiant Garden's castle dungeon, moved as far away from Xehanort as possible, and sat down. They'd sat there for several minutes before moving into the warm water pool.

Lea sunk down until the water was nearly touching his nose and absently scratched at his left shoulder. The sound of Xehanort's voice, speaking Greek again, caught his attention, and he looked over to see him talking to someone holding a serving tray in their hand. Xehanort handed over a bit more munny and then pointed at Lea.

Lea felt his heart sink. Oh great, someone was going to see him naked up close – again. He'd had a few admiring looks since he'd walked in (Not near as many as Xehanort though – he wasn't sure if he should be annoyed by that or not.) and he didn't need any more. He'd been to the world enough to know that homosexuality was openly practiced, and while he believed that people had the right to bang whomever they wanted, he certainly didn't want other guys eyeing him. No matter what that crazy bitch Larxene had said about him and Roxas.

Words spoken in Greek right next to him startled Lea from his thoughts, and he jumped slightly and looked up and to his left to see the person Xehanort had been speaking to standing there, holding out a cake of some kind. Lea blinked at it, and then he looked across the pool at Xehanort, who nodded and held up his own cake. Lea then turned back towards the seller, and he managed a weak smile and a quiet "Thank you." as he took the offered cake.

The seller smiled, nodded, and then walked away, and Lea bit into the cake and couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as the sweet taste of honey hit his tongue. He hadn't had a honey cake in forever, ever since -

_Mom last made them._

With that, Lea's smile vanished, and he closed his eyes as his heart gave a hard, painful twist. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked over at Xehanort, who had just finished off his own cake if the way he was licking his fingers was any indication. The Keyblade Master then leaned back against the ledge behind him and seemed to relax. He closed his eyes and sank a little further down into the water.

It wasn't fair.

Everything that Xehanort had done: all the lives he had stolen, all the Heartless he had created, all of the worlds that he had destroyed, and he gets to relax in a warm bath while the worlds he had wrecked struggled to rebuild. He'd taken Isa away, but Lea has to be polite to him and call him by his title. Lea growled quietly to himself and clenched his hands into fists under the water. He didn't know how, but someway, he had to make Xehanort pay. As soon as Isa was safe -

"Lea!" Xehanort's voice snapped Lea out of his thoughts again, and for one panicked moment, he wondered if the man had heard his thoughts. Oh hell, Xehanort being telepathic would be the _worst_ -

"Lea, let's go."

Lea was kicked out of his thoughts again. "Huh, what?"

Xehanort had gotten out of the pool and was standing on the edge of it, still naked. A few of the other men were giving him appreciative looks.

 _Eyes up,_ Lea thought to himself, _Eyes up, eyes up. Don't look down at the rest of him._

"I said, let's go." Xehanort repeated his statement.

"Are we done already? I was just getting comfortable..."

"Sure you were, and no, we just need to go into the next room. Now hurry up. We still have a meeting to get to after this."

Xehanort turned and walked out of the room, water streaming freely from his hair and down his -

 _Nope, don't look._ Lea quickly turned his head away. Only once Xehanort was out of sight, did he stand up from the water, and blushing like mad at the whistles and catcalls, follow him into the next area.

**OOOOOO**

"That water was cold." Lea grumped as he followed Xehanort down a narrow street about 20 minutes later.

Xehanort's mouth twitched. "I tried to warn you, but you just jumped right in."

"Yeah, you tried to warn me, as I was already jumping in." Lea pulled his freshly washed coat tighter around him, trying to clear off the chill from his frigid plunge. "Why in the hell do they have a cold water bath after a warm one?"

"They believe it closes the pores and prevents things from entering the body."

"That makes no sense."

"A lot of things about their culture make no sense, but they are several hundred years behind Radiant Garden in many fields, so it's to be expected." Xehanort smiled faintly. "Be glad they at least have bathing. Some cultures don't believe in it."

" _Seriously?_ "

"Seriously. They're reasons for that vary wildly, but some people only bathe on rare occasions, like after getting into a bloody battle, or after childbirth."

"Remind me never to go to those worlds."

"Sometimes it's due to ignorance, sometimes it's due to a lack of clean water, but I generally avoid those worlds. Ignorance can make things dangerous for people like us, and a lack of clean water speaks for itself."

"Can't you conjure them some?"

"Conjuring enough water for a large group of people would tire out even someone like me, and then they would promptly burn me at the stake for openly doing magic, so that would be a no."

"So is there a list of worlds that are too hostile to go to?"

"Some, yes, and I will make sure you know those worlds, but sometimes even a hostile world must be visited. You just have to be careful to keep your head down, your mouth shut, and avoid attracting attention while there."

"Note made. So... how much munny did you give that slave for taking care of our clothes? I thought he was going to kiss you before we left."

"Enough to buy his freedom if he wished."

"Why did you do that? It's nice of you, but it seems..."

"Out of character? Come now, Lea, even after I fell, I wasn't _completely_ evil."

"No, just mostly, so why did you do that?"

Xehanort gave him a halfhearted glare."Because Ventus would have wanted me to. He loathed slavery and told me once that he was going to free every slave in all the worlds one day. Every slave that we encountered after that, I either freed them myself or gave them the money to buy their own freedom."

"Wow, that's..." Lea hesitated. "...really nice of you. Didn't know you had it in you."

"It's amazing what one will do to make their child smile."

Lea suddenly pictured a younger Ventus, smiling up at Xehanort, and he quickly banished the image as it made his heart ache for some reason.

"So, where are we going?" he asked.

"A little tavern up here a bit. We'll have a seat at an outdoor table, have a drink, and wait for the one we're supposed to meet to show up."

"Who are we meeting?"

"Apollo, probably. It always seems to be him when I come out this way."

Lea stumbled as his mind seemed to screech to a halt for a moment. "Apollo? The god of the sun Apollo?"

"Sun god?" Xehanort snorted. "He wishes. Otherwise yes, that Apollo."

Xehanort stepped off the street and over to a small table under a linen canopy. He said something in Greek to a person standing inside an open door a few feet away, and then he sat down and gestured for Lea to do the same.

No sooner had Lea sat down than the person Xehanort had spoken to was back, carrying two goblets full of a pale red liquid. Xehanort said something else, passed over some munny, and the person snatched it up and vanished back through the doorway.

Lea picked up his goblet – which reminded him of a sports trophy his father had won as a boy – and sniffed at the liquid inside. "Is this wine?"

Xehanort nodded a took a drink from his own goblet. "It is. I should warn you though that it's cut with water here, as alcohol consumption is somewhat frowned upon."

"Why even bother then?" Lea took a sip and made a face at the watered down taste.

"Because everywhere you go, humans need their vices, even if their culture dislikes it. Now, drink the wine."

Lea gave Xehanort a look before taking another sip. "So now what?"

"Now we wait and see if anyone shows."

Lea made a small "Hmm," as he looked around. The patio they were sitting on had a few other tables, but most were unoccupied. The table furthest from them had a tall, blond haired man sitting at it, but the rest were empty. The person who had served the wine was nowhere in sight, and the buildings nearby all seemed to be deserted. Other than the occasional notes of birdsong, the area was quiet.

"Ah," Xehanort said after a few minutes had passed. "Here he comes."

Lea paused in raising his goblet to his mouth and looked at Xehanort. "Who, Apollo?"

"Yes, you should be able to sense his approach."

Lea stilled. He titled his head to the side and frowned. "I feel.. something. Almost like a feeling of heaviness?"

Xehanort nodded. "That's him."

"He feels like Tia Dalma did."

"That feeling will increase in intensity as he moves closer to us. He's far more powerful than her."

"How do you know he won't just, you know, kill you where you sit once he gets here? I'm sure all the gods are more than a little pissed at you over everything." Lea heard a loud huff from the blond man at the other table.

"Oh, they are." Xehanort replied. "Believe me, I know, but Apollo, as well as the others, will keep their hands to themselves, so I have no fear of that."

"But how do you know that for sure?"

"I have my ways, Lea, that's all you need to know for now."

Lea slumped down in his chair. "You're keeping secrets from me."

"I am, just as my master kept things from me sometimes. You'll survive, like I did, so quit sulking."

Lea grumbled to himself as the feeling of heaviness increased, pressing down on him as though it wanted to smash him down through his chair and down onto the patio.

"Oh, now he's just being an ass." Xehanort said quietly.

"He really doesn't like you. You must have really pissed him off with the whole 'restart the Keyblade War' thing." Lea commented as sweat popped out on his forehead.

"Apollo hated me long before that plan ever got started, trust me. I'm not sure if it's always him I encounter because he's hoping to take a shot at me sometime, or if his father finds it amusing when the two of us interact."

"He does know that I had nothing to do with whatever you did that he hates you for, right?"

"Oh, I'm sure he does, just as I also know that he doesn't care."

The man at the other table hissed something too low for Lea to understand, and the feeling of heaviness eased.

"Thank the skies above." Lea mumbled as he sat up in his chair.

Xehanort said nothing. He kept still in his own chair, straight backed and quiet, as Apollo moved closer. Lea looked at him, frowning in confusion, at the sudden change in behavior.

"Finally, you show proper respect for my presence." came a voice, and Lea yelped and jumped enough that he came off of the seat of the chair for a split second.

The formerly deserted street now had a person standing in it, a man that was nearly a head taller than Xehanort. Hair that was a mass of golden blond curls covered his head and spilled down the back of his neck. His face reminded Lea of a marble statue: chiseled and perfectly smooth, with a pair of pale blue eyes that glared down at Xehanort. He was wearing a golden tunic that hung off one shoulder and went down to his knees, along with a pair of sandals. Lea felt suddenly uneasy looking at him, and it had nothing to do with the man's powerful, looming presence.

"Don't flatter yourself." Xehanort said easily. "You know full well who my respect is reserved for, and that it isn't you."

Apollo seemed to grow taller then, and he loomed over Xehanort, who didn't flinch at the angry god that was standing over him. Lea though felt sweat begin to run down his face and back, and he shuddered as his stomach clenched. "One day, Xehanort, one day. They are not going to protect you forever."

Xehanort waved that away. "Yes, yes, when that day arrives you'll make me pay for my insolence, and so on and so forth. You say that every time we meet. Why don't you just spare yourself the breath and both of us the time, and just tell me what I need to know?"

Apollo snarled wordlessly. "No, they're not anywhere near here." he spat. "They avoid all of the worlds where the Old Gods are. It would seem that your ancestry is known to them."

"That will make things easier." Xehanort said in a thoughtful tone. "If they avoid the gods, that narrows the amount of worlds they can stay on considerably."

"You are making the assumption that they know of all of us." Apollo said with a sneer, and Lea shivered at his tone. "If a world's gods are not known to them, they will not hesitate to stop there."

"Hmm, yes, that is true. Still though, that cuts down on the worlds they will stop on quite a bit, and every little bit will help here."

"You are a fool, Xehanort, if you think that they don't know of your ability to track the poor creature that you've made into your vessel. The others made no attempt to keep that knowledge secret."

"I am aware of that, yes, no need to remind me. Do you have any other useful information that I should know, or would you prefer to just keep insulting me?"

Apollo snarled again, and Lea pushed himself back into his chair as the feeling of the god's anger beat down on him, which made his head swim. "I have nothing more to say to you."

"Perhaps then, you should leave, before you make my apprentice pass out."

Apollo seemed to notice Lea then, and Lea managed to raise his aching head to meet the god's blue eyed gaze, and he vaguely noted that the god's face had no lines, wrinkles, or any other signs of aging. It was also perfectly symmetrical, and Lea flinched back away from it and lowered his head again.

"You will leave him alone, Apollo." came Xehanort's voice. "He's done nothing to you."

"I should put him out of his misery right now, before you decide to rip his heart in two."

Lea faintly heard Xehanort's chair being pushed back as he stood. "Do not touch him."

"It would be doing him a kindness." Lea felt Apollo's power pressing down on him again.

"You know what he will do if you deliberately harm one of his creatures." Xehanort stated firmly.

The pressure seemed to ease for a moment, and then it receded. "Yes, that is true. I suppose I will have to leave this one to your _tender mercies_ then."

"That would be greatly appreciated." Xehanort's words were dry enough to start a fire with. "Now leave."

Apollo growled. "One day, one day."

"Yes, yes, yes, I've heard it all before."

Apollo glared down at Xehanort one last time, and then he turned and began to walk away, and Lea felt the ground shaking under his footsteps.

"Oh andApollo?" Xehanort called out, which caused the god to pause. Xehanort smiled. "Please give my regards to your sister."

Apollo howled in rage, and Lea felt the god's power slam into him, like he'd run into a wall at full speed. His vision dimmed, his stomach rolled, and he found himself pressed down into the chair hard enough that his bones creaked under the strain.

"Enough!" came a third voice from behind them, the pressure abruptly vanished, and Lea felt an arm come around his shoulders and felt his head being held against a leather coat.

"Xehanort?" he said as the area spun dizzily around him.

Something cold was pressed to his lips. "Drink this, Lea." Such was his state that Lea didn't question the order. He allowed his head to be titled back so cool water could pour into his mouth, and he drank it down greedily. Above that, he could hear a third voice saying something, but he couldn't quite understand the words.

"Apollo is leaving now." Xehanort said quietly as he took the now empty cup away. "I never thought that he would be stupid enough to attack you, right in front of him, no less."

Lea wondered briefly who "him" was but decided it wasn't important enough to worry about. The sunlight shining down on the area seemed to dim, and he slumped down in Xehanort's arms as his passed out.

**OOOOOO**

".. idiot!"

"I didn't expect..."

"... could have killed him if..."

"Apollo is..."

"Enough, Xehanort!"

Lea felt his body jump into wakefulness at the loud voice, and he blinked his eyes open to see a plain white ceiling above him. He realized right away that he was lying on something soft, that his coat and boots were not on, and that there were two presences nearby, the owners of the two voices he could hear, obviously. One was Xehanort, the other he didn't recognize. He felt power flickering across his skin, and he shivered. It wasn't Xehanort's; it was far more powerful than that, more powerful than even Apollo had felt, but there was none of the pressure that he'd felt with the Greek god. He didn't know how he knew, but he had the strongest feeling that what he was detecting was only a tiny fraction of this other person's true power, that it was tightly restrained in some way.

"You were foolish, Xehanort." came that the other voice, the same one he'd heard at the tavern, and it was low and had little inflection in it. "You should not have taunted him."

"I know." Xehanort's voice was strangely quiet.

"If I had not been there, Apollo would have killed your apprentice. Nothing would have been able to save him, not even you. I would have then been forced to punish him, which would have only made things even more difficult for you."

"I understand."

"Do you really, Xehanort? How many times have you said those two words in your life? How many times have you really understood the matter at hand? If you truly had understood, you would not be in this position to begin with." The room went silent for a moment.

"I will see to it that Apollo keeps away from you." came the second voice again. "I swear that you two are like fire and gasoline -"

What the hell was gasoline?

"- and it is only a matter of time before his jealousy makes him defy my orders."

"Maybe he shouldn't be so damned possessive of his twin then."

"Do not say it!" The second voice became a furious hiss. "Not a word!"

Xehanort kept silent, and Lea leveraged himself up to see who was talking.

Xehanort was kneeling on the floor, his head bowed, his face hidden by his hair. Standing in front of him was the blond man from the tavern, and he was glaring down at Xehanort with angry amber eyes. He wore only a simple, golden, long sleeved robe that went down to nearly the floor, and slippers on his feet instead of sandals. Lea blinked in confusion at the bizarre scene, and the stranger looked up at him. The angry gaze softened slightly, and then it turned back to glare down at Xehanort again.

"Keep this one alive." he snapped. "Do not harm him, and do not allow others to harm him either."

"I won't." Xehanort's voice was nearly a whisper, and Lea saw him shiver as he knelt there at the person's feet.

"Do not forget that I am watching you, Xehanort. You live now only because my son begged me to let you try and set right what you've ruined. Do not dishonor his name again."

Xehanort nodded. "Yes, my lord. It will be as you say."

The person stared down at him for a second longer, and then he simply disappeared. Lea reared his head back and rubbed at his eyes. One second there, the next second gone.

Xehanort remained on the floor for nearly a full minute after the stranger vanished, and then he took a deep, shuddering breath and got to his feet. He raked his hair back out of his face and turned to look at Lea.

Lea felt his jaw drop at Xehanort's appearance. His face was pale and drawn, like he was in pain, and his eyes had deep bags under them, like he hadn't slept in weeks. His hair hung lank and limp around his face, and he was shaking slightly.

"Are you all right, Lea?" he asked, his voice only marginally louder than it had been earlier.

 _Shouldn't I be asking you that?_ "I, um.. yeah? What the hell happened to you?" Lea stammered out.

"Nothing that I didn't deserve, so do not worry about me." Xehanort moved and carefully sat down at the foot of the narrow bed that Lea was on. "I need to apologize to you. I never should have brought you to this world. Apollo has hated me for decades, and I should have realized that he might try to hurt you since he couldn't touch me." Xehanort sighed. "Taunting him was an idiotic idea on my part, and it nearly cost you your life." Xehanort slumped down and stared down at the mattress. "I am sorry. I won't risk you like that again. You have my word."

Lea felt his mouth opening and closing without a sound leaving it. "Umm, okay?" he finally managed.

Xehanort sighed again and stood up. "You are to take it easy for the rest of the day, Lea. We're going to stay the night here, and we'll depart in the morning. Stay in this bed and relax; I'm going to fetch us lunch."

Xehanort moved across the small room and was out the door into the rest of the building before Lea could think of anything to say, leaving him alone in the empty room, with only the chirping of the birds outside for company.


End file.
